THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Edncation 
Library 

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lI  , 

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TO    ONK    OK    TIIK 
GRKATKST    LIVIXO    SCHOLARS    AM)    ]:i)rCATORS, 

REV.    WILLIAM   V.   WARRIvX,   LL.  I)., 

I'RKSIDKNT  OK  BOSTON  VNlVlvRSITY. 


NOTE. 


The  author  of  this  volume  aims  to  give  the  reailcr  a  brief 
survey  of  the  growth,  functions,  and  work  of  the  American 
Colleges.  It  has  been  a  pleasure  to  visit  many  of  the  college* 
and  gather  facts,  receive  impressions  and  carry  away  many 
pleasant  recollections  regarding  them. 

The  following  authorities  have  been  helpful  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  work:  "A  History  of  Kducation,"  by  F.  V.  N. 
Painter;  "  The  Rise  and  Early  Constitution  of  Universities," 
by  S.  S.  Laurie  ;  "  Kducation  in  the  United  States,"  by  Richard 
G.  Doone  ;  "  Essays  on  Educational  Reformers,"  by  Robert  H. 
Quick;  "  Education,"  by  Herbert  Spencer  ;  "  Universities  in 
Germany,"  by  J.  M.  Hart;  Huxley's  "  Technical  Education;" 
Fronde's  "Essay  on  Education  ;"  "The  American  College 
and  the  American  Public,"  by  President  Noah  Porter ; 
"  Prayer  for  Collef;es,"  by  Profes.sor  W.  S.  Tyler  ;  ".Vmericon 
Colleges  :  their  Life  and  Work,"  and  "  Within  College  Walls," 
by  President  Chas.  F.  Thwing;  "Universities  on  the  Conti- 
nent," and  "  Culture  and  Anarchy,"  by  Matthew  Arnold  ;  "  Ed- 
ucational Essays,"  by  IHshop  Edward  Thomson  ;  Christianity 
in  the  United  Stales,"  by  Daniel  Dorchester;  "  College  Life," 
by  Stephen  Oliu  ;  "  The  Intellectual  Life,"  by  P.  G.  Hamerton  ; 
"  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Kducation,"  by  F.  W.  I-'arrar  ;  "  History 
of  Higher  Education  "  in  the  several  Slates,  prepared  by  the 
Durcaii  of  Education  ;  "  Reports  of  the  Comnii.'-sioiicr  of  Kdu- 
cation for  i89o-'9i ;  "  and  the  periodical  literature  bearing  on 
the  subject. 


CONTENTS. 


I.     The  Rise  of  Universities  in  the  Old  World,     13 

II.     The   Planting    of  Colleges    in    the   New 

World, 36 

III.  Characteristics   of  the  American  College,     69 

IV.  The  Functions  of  the  American  College,  104 

a.     A  Symmetrical  Development. 
d.     The  Advancement  of  Knowledge. 
i.     Preparation  for  Service. 
V.     Student  Life  in  College, 156 

VI.     The  Personal  Factors  in  a  College  Educa- 
tion,   178 

VII.     The    Practical    Value    of    an    Education,   196 

VIII.     Our  Indebtedness  to  Colleges, 229 


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INTRODUCTION. 


I  cannot  be  unwilling  to  avail  myself  of 
any  opportunity  to  turn  the  attention  of 
the  Christian  public  to  the  Christian  Col- 
lege. It  is  a  noble  public  and  an  equally 
noble  object.  I  can  conceive  of  no  wor- 
thier or  more  Christian  thing  than  the  care- 
taking  of  one  generation  that  the  next  one, 
which  must  necessarily  lie  so  long  under 
its  influence  and  for  which  it  is  therefore 
so  thoroughly  responsible,  should  receive  a 
Christian  education. 

To  put  Christ  at  the  center  and  make 
Him  felt  to  the  circumference  (as  Bungener 
said  in  speaking  of  Calvin's  school  policy),  is 
exceedingly  difficult.  But  it  is  exceedingly 
important.     It  is,  indeed,  vital  and  pivotal. 

The  dangers  about  it  are  great  and  ever 
greater.     They    come    from    the    general 


8  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

worldliness  of  all  things  and  everybody  in 
this  age  of  unprecedentedly  rapid  and 
splendid  material  development.  They  are 
increased  by  the  growth  of  specnlativc  in- 
fidelity whether  of  the  philosophical  or 
scientific  phase.  They  spring  ont  of  ever>'- 
thing  which  lowers  the  Bible  from  that 
snpreme  and  sovereign  consideration  by 
which  alone  it  can  hold  the  place  in  ednca- 
tion  which  the  Old  Testament  economy 
gave  it,  and  which  all  the  books  of  all  the 
other  book-religions  of  the  world  most  im- 
questioningly  possess.  They  arc  bom  of 
all  that  false  theorizing  about  the  limits  of 
government  and  the  liberty  of  conscience 
which  issues  in  the  demands  for  utter  sec- 
ularization of  every  institution  of  the  State, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  necessities  of 
popular  government  are  demonstrating 
that  education  must  be  by  the  State.  They 
are  intensified  by  the  divided  opinion  of 
the  church  universal,  of  which  the  Cath- 
olic and  Greek  sections  hold  that  education 
must  be  religious  and    under  the  care  of 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  9 

the  Cliurcli ;  while  the  State-Church  Prot- 
estant section  holds  that  it  may  be  re- 
ligious under  certain  conditions,  and  the 
extreme  secularistic  protestant  wing  holds 
that  it  cannot  be  religious  because  con- 
ducted by  the  vState,  and  a  rather  diminish- 
ing protestant  section  in  free-church 
nations  holds  that  tlie  higher  education 
should  be  Christian,  while  the  secondary 
and  primary  may  safely  be  left  to  the  sec- 
ular State. 

These  dangers  are  not  only  imminent  but 
actual.  The  whole  effort  to  support  a 
Christian  education  in  the  public  schools 
is  sometimes  called  a  "  bootless  wrangle." 
One  section  is  thrown  over  towards  sec- 
ularism, pure  and  simple,  in  recoiling  from 
Church-education  exclusive  and  reaction- 
ary. The  leading  of  the  little  child,  the 
favorite  indication  of  the  millennium's 
arrival,  is  frustrated  amid  the  clamor  of  the 
free  thinkers  and  the  uncertainty  of  the 
Church  and  the  necessities  of  the  State. 
We  are  slowly  but  surely,  if  we  go  on  in 


10  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

this  way,  taking  our  children  out  of  Christ's 
arms  and  our  youth  from  beside  His  foot- 
steps. And  that  is  at  once  the  most  fearful 
sin  against  Him,  and  the  most  terrible  in- 
justice to  them,  we  could  possibly  commit. 
Who  can  do  anything  to  stay  this  destnic- 
tive  tendency  ?  "  God  bless  him,"  I  would 
say  in  Livingstone's  spirit,  "  whoever  he 
may  be,"  that  will  help  to  heal  this  open 
wound  of  the  world. 

I  think  Mr.  Barker's  little  book  will  help. 
It  supplies  much  information  carefully  col- 
lected from  scattered  sources,  given  in 
brief  and  explicit  statements.  Its  range  of 
themes  is  wide  and  upon  them  all  some 
standard  thoughts  are  given.  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  all  readers  and  should  find  them 
among  parents  (whom  it  should  make 
patrons),  among  those  who  have  hearts  to 
pray  and  those  who  have  hands  to  help.  It 
will  prove  to  be  of  rare  interest  to  all  whose 
duty  it  is  to  teach,  and  it  has  much  wise 
counsel  for  those  who  arc  to  study. 

The  treatment  of  the  function  of  the  Col- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  H 

lege  for  the  cultivation  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  nature  (Chapter  IV)  deserves 
special  attention.  Its  declarations  are  firm, 
its  ideals  high  and  its  selected  opinions  apt 
and  forcible.  It  ought  to  end  the  reign  of 
any  institution  in  which  religion  is  not  put 
at  the  center  and  kept  as  efficient  as  hu- 
man instrinnentalities  can  make  it.  The 
demand  for  professors  of  pronounced  Chris- 
tian character  and  convictions  is  timely 
and  is  fearlessly  made. 

The  discussion  of  the  currents  and 
counter-currents  of  influences  in  college 
life  cannot  but  be  useful,  with  a  possibly 
increased  emphasis  against  the  secret  so- 
cieties and  a  caution  against  organizations 
of  undergraduates  for  active  partisan  work 
in  politics.  The  time  for  these  fruits  is 
"not  yet." 

Admirably  the  author  shows  that  we 
have  the  best  College  material  in  the  world 
and  that  it  behaves  itself  best.  And  there 
can  be  no  lack  of  agreement  as  to  the 
arousing  arguments  and  the  closing  chap- 


12  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

ters  concerning  the  usefulness  of  colleges 
to  the  individual  and  the  community.  May 
it  serve  to  kindle  and  to  extend  when 
kindled  the  wholesome  enthusiasm  its 
respected  author  manifests  both  b\"  word 
and  work. 

SVLVESTKR    F.    SCOVKI.. 

The  University  of  Wooster, 
July  9,  1894. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 


I. 


THE   RISE  OF    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE 
OLD  WORLD. 

The  American  college  system  is  deeply 
rooted  in  the  past.  It  will  be  better  under- 
stood if  we  trace  briefly  its  historic  connec- 
tion with  the  ancient  and  European  seats  of 
learning.  Higher  education  has  been  pro- 
moted among  all  great  nations.  Flourish- 
ing colleges  were  founded  among  ancient 
people.  In  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and 
Israel,  schools  of  the  Prophets  were  located 
at  Bethel,  Gibeah,  Gilgal,  Jericho  and 
Naioth.  The  Academy  of  Athens,  the 
IVIuseum  of  Alexandria,  the  Athenaeum  of 
Rome  were  once  centers  of  intellectual  ac- 


14  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

tivity  and  spread  their  influence  over  the 
civilized  world. 

The  Greek  race  especially  commands  our 
attention  for  its  activity  in  matters  relating 
to  higher  education.  The  Academy  of 
Plato  flourished  for  nine  hundred  years. 
The  schools  of  Athens  are  noted  for  their 
great  and  permanent  influence  in  awaken- 
ing thought  and  shedding  the  light  of  their 
teaching  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 
"So  charged,"  says  Cardinal  Newman,  "is 
the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  East  with 
Greek  civilization,  that  down  to  this  day 
those  tribes  are  said  to  show  to  most  ad- 
vantage which  can  claim  relation  of  i)lace 
and  kin  with  Greek  colonics  established 
two  thousand  years  ago."  The  influences 
of  the  scholastic  halls  of  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle span  the  centuries  with  their  light 
and  power. 

Here  tniths  were  taught  that  have  found 
universal  acceptance.  Down  to  the  second 
century,  Athens  was  a  favorite  resort  for 
students.   The  college  at  Alexandria,  where 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  15 

SO  many  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  were 
educated,  was  founded  and  carefully  organ- 
ized by  Ptolemy  two  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era.  For  six  hundred  years  it 
exerted  a  great  influence  on  the  youth  who 
gathered  from  all  parts  of  the  civilized 
world  to  receive  instruction  from  its  emi- 
nent professors. 

Roman  colleges  likewise  exerted  a  whole- 
some influence  in  their  day.  They  began 
during  the  life-time  of  Quintilian,  in  the 
second  century,  and  it  continued  to  be  the 
deliberate  policy  of  Augustus,  Vespasian 
and  Hadrian  to  multiply  and  extend  the 
influence  of  endowed  schools  in  Rome  and 
provincial  towns.  Their  object,  says  Mer- 
ivale,  was  to  "  restore  the  tone  of  society 
and  infuse  into  the  national  mind  healthier 
sentiments."  These  Romano -Hellenic 
schools  were  so  tenacious  of  life  that  they 
continued  to  flourish  down  to  the  fifth  cen- 
tury. Owing  to  the  decline  of  personal 
morality  and  the  low  conceptions  of  the 
ends  of  human  life,  and  other  general  in- 


16  COLLEGES  AV  AMERICA. 

fluences  which  led  to  the  downfall  of  the 
empire,  these  schools  finally  degenerated 
and  could  no  longer  survive. 

"  Some  great  new  spiritual  force,"  says 
Professor  Laurie,  "  was  needed  to  refonn 
society  and  the  education  of  the  young. 
That  force  was  at  hand  in  Christianity; 
and  if  it  very  early  assumed  a  negative,  if 
not  a  prohibitory,  attitude  to  the  old  learn- 
ing, it  may  be  conceded  that  this  was  an 
inevitable  step  in  the  development  of  a 
new  ethical  idea." 

The  Christian  system  of  education  grad- 
ually superseded  the  pagan  system.  Chris- 
tianity fortified  the  sense  of  personality 
and  introduced  the  idea  of  a  broader  and 
deeper  sentiment  of  human  brotherhood, 
which  helped  to  diffuse  the  spirit  of  educa- 
tion among  the  people  and  awaken  in  the 
human  mind  a  sense  of  its  native  dignity 
and  power. 

There  were  in  the  first  century  such  men 
as  Clemens,  Ignatius  and  Polycarp,  who 
employed  their  talent  to  build  up  Chris- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  17 

tianity  and  encourage  the  education  of  the 
people.  In  the  second  century,  "the  num- 
ber of  the  learned  men  increased  consider- 
ably, the  majority  of  whom  were  philoso- 
phers attached  to  the  elective  system."  It 
was  at  the  close  of  this  century  (i8i  A.  I).) 
that  the  first  Christian  catechetical  school 
was  established  at  Alexandria,  in  accord 
with  Christian  requirements.  Such  schools 
soon  became  numerous  and  efficient,  and 
were  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
Bishops.  The  priests,  as  well  as  the  laity, 
were  educated  in  them.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  they  had  entirely  super- 
seded the  schools  of  the  granimaticiis^  when 
ancient  culture  became  practically  extinct. 
The  monastic  schools  arose  in  the  fifth 
century  to  supplant  the  Romano-Hellenic 
schools.  Chief  among  the  founders  in  the 
West  was  Benedict,  v.'lio  in  428  A.  D. 
founded  a  monastery  on  ]\IonteCassino,near 
Naples.  "  He  had  educational  as  well  as 
religious  aims  from  the  first,  Jind  it  is  to 
the  monks  of  this  rapidlv  extending  order, 


18  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

or  to  the  influence  which  their  '  rule '  exer- 
cised on  other  conventual  orders,  such  as 
the  Columban,  that  we  owe  the  diffusion  of 
schools  in  the  early  part  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  the  preservation  of  ancient  learn- 
ing. The  Benedictine  monks  not  only 
taught  in  their  own  monasteries,  but  were 
everywhere  in  demand  as  heads  of  Episco- 
pal or  Cathedral  schools."* 

The  monastic  schools  multiplied  rapidly 
throughout  Europe  and  took  the  lead  in 
education  and  gained  more  influence  than 
the  episcopal  schools.  These  schools,  shel- 
tered by  the  church,  existed  from  the 
fourth  to  the  twelfth  century  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  ecclesiastical  body.  The  ma- 
jority of  them  did  not  admit  lay  instruction 
imtil  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century. 
Education  during  this  period,  with  few  ex- 
ceptional centers,  was  crude  and  unenlight- 
ened. The  power  of  the  mediaeval  ma- 
chinery was  such  that  these  schools  gave 
to  the* clergy  only  the  mere  rudiments  of 

•I,aurie. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  19 

learning.  The  conception  of  education  at 
first  did  not  embrace  the  culture  of  the 
whole  man.  It  was  commonly  thought 
that  the  religious  life  opposed  the  life  of 
the  world,  and  that  the  temporal  life  should 
be  one  of  abnegation  and  asceticism.  It 
was  the  belief  that  human  reason  could  not 
be  trusted  to  have  independent  activity, 
and  so  dogma  was  substituted  for  its  free 
movement.  The  mind  was  cribbed  and 
confined  by  rules,  for  fear  that  speculations 
in  philosophy  and  free  investigations  would 
disturb  and  rationalize  theology.  Thought 
was  so  fettered  that  philosophy,  literature 
and  science  were  almost  forgotten.  Every- 
thing was  done  to  subserv^e  the  faith  and 
suppress  heresy.  The  Latin  and  Greek 
classics  were  denounced  as  the  offspring  of 
the  pagan  world.  It  required  several  cen- 
turies for  the  Christian  world  to  conceive 
that  there  was  no  antagonism  between  rea- 
son and  authority,  and  between  Greek  and 
Roman  culture  and  the  Christian  religion. 
These  schools,  however,  did  a  valuable  serv- 


20  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

ice  to  the  cause  of  education  by  transcribing 
manuscripts  and  becoming  repositories  of 
ancient  learning. 

The  intellectual  chaos  began  to  end 
about  the  tenth  century.  Tlie  re-estab- 
lishment of  civilization  and  the  revival  of 
learning  was  still  more  manifest  during  tlie 
eleventh  centur>',  and  soon  university  life 
became  possible.  The  time  was  evidently 
ripe  for  Europe  to  awake  from  its  intellect- 
ual sleep  and  begin  a  new  educational 
development.  The  general  causes  which 
contributed  to  give  fresh  impulse  to  higher 
education  at  this  time  were  the  growing 
tendency  to  organization,  the  Saracen  in- 
fluence and  the  desire  for  higher  learning 
in  the  more  important  centers.  "  The  uni- 
versities were  founded,"  says  Professor 
Latirie,  "  by  a  concurrence  of  able  men 
who  had  something  they  wished  to  teach, 
and  of  youth  who  desired  to  learn.  '''•  *  * 
It  was  the  eternal  need  of  the  human  spirit 
in  its  relation  to  the  unseen  that  originated 
the  University  of  Paris.     We  may  say  then 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  21 

that  it  was  the  improvement  of  the  profes- 
sions of  medicine,  law  and  theology  which 
led  to  the  inception  and  organization  of  the 
first  great  schools." 

The  people  felt  the  need  of  providing 
and  obtaining  instrnction  beyond  the  mo- 
nastic and  episcopal  schools.  By  the  natural 
development  of  these,  a  nnmber  of  high- 
grade  schools  were  established  which  after- 
wards gave  rise  to  the  universities.  They 
came  into  existence  without  charter  from 
either  ecclesiastical  or  civil  power,  and 
were  not  controlled  or  directed  by  either. 
The  importance  of  these  institutions  vras 
soon  discovered  by  both  Pope  and  Emperor, 
who  cultivated  friendly  relations  with  these 
free,  voluntary  and  self-supporting  centers 
of  learning  and  gave  them  special  priv- 
ileges and  encouragement. 

Among  the  first  European  schools  was 
that  of  vSalerno,  in  Italy,  which  was  known 
as  a  school  of  medicine  as  early  as  the 
ninth  century.  The  University  of  Bologna 
arose  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century.    In 


22  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

121 1  the  University  of  Paris  became  a  legal 
corporation.  Oxford  began  as  a  secondary 
school,  and  passed  to  the  rank  of  a  nniver- 
sity  in  1 140,  and  Cambridge  was  established 
in  the  year  1200.  Professor  Laurie  says 
that  "  in  the  course  of  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries  there  grew  up  in  Europe 
ten  universities;  while  in  the  fourteenth 
centur>'  we  find  eighteen  added ;  and  in 
the  fifteenth  century  twenty-nine  arose, 
including  St.  Andrew's  (141 1),  Glasgow 
(1454),  Aberdeen  (1477).  The  great  intel- 
lectual activity  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
which  led  to  the  rise  of  so  many  univer- 
sities, coincides  with  the  first  revival  of  let- 
ters, or  rather  was  one  manifestation  of  the 
revival."  The  main  center  of  this  great 
intellectual  movement  was  the  University 
of  Paris,  the  mother  of  universities,  which 
gained  pre-eminence  in  tlie  great  studies 
of  theolog)'  and  philosophy.  It  was  char- 
tered by  Philip  Augustus  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  was  fostered  by  I'rance, 
Picardy,  Normandy  and  Kingland.     These 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  23 

united  and  organized  the  Faculty  of  Arts, 
which  became  its  chief  glory.  It  taught 
the  three  arts,  Latin  grammar,  rhetoric 
and  dialectics,  known  as  the  Irivium.  The 
qiiadriviiini^  embracing  arithmetic,  geom- 
etr}'-,  astronomy  and  music,  was  likewise 
taught.  The  Faculty  of  Theology  was 
created  in  1257,  that  of  Law  in  1271,  and 
that  of  Medicine  in  1274. 

Matthew  Arnold  says  that  "  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris  was  the  main  center  of  me- 
diaeval science,  and  the  authoritative  school 
of  mediaeval  teaching.  It  received  names 
expressing  the  most  enthusiastic  devotion, 
the  Fountain  of  Knoivledge^  the  Tree  of 
Lifgy  the  Candlestick  of  the  House  of  the 
Lord.  *  *  *  Here  came  Roger  Bacon, 
Saint  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Dante  ;  here 
studied  the  founder  of  the  first  university 
of  the  empire,  Charles  the  Fourth,  Em- 
peror of  Germany  and  King  of  Bohemia, 
founder  of  the  University  of  Prague." 

The  intellectual  lead  which  belonged  to 
France  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 


24  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

tunes  passed  to  Italy  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  Some  of  the  universities  in  Italy 
ranked  among  the  best  in  Europe.  They 
were  chiefly  distinguished  for  their  studies 
in  law  and  medicine.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  ITniversity  of 
Bologna  was  famous  throughout  the  world, 
having  at  one  time  12,000  students  from  all 
parts  of  Europe.  These  imiversities  con- 
tinued to  exert  a  powerful  influence  until 
Catholicism  triumphed  over  the  abortive 
attempts  at  religious  reform,  and  there  set- 
tled down  over  the  brilliant  Italy  of  the 
Renaissance  an  iinprog^essive  and  anti-in- 
tellectual influence  from  which  she  has 
never  fully  recovered. 

"  The  importance  of  the  university  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,"  says 
Matthew  Arnold,  '*  was  extraordinary. 
Men's  minds  were  possessed  with  a  won- 
derful zeal  for  knowledge,  or  what  was  then 
thought  knowledge,  and  the  ITniversity  of 
Paris  was  the  great  fount  from  which  this 
knowledge   issued.     The    University    and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  25 

those  depending  on  it,  made  at  this  time,  it 
is  said,  actnally  a  third  of  the  population 
of  Paris.  *  *  ^-  One  asks  oneself  with  in- 
terest, what  was  the  mental  food  to  which 
this  vast,  turbulent  multitude  pressed  with 
such  inconceivable  hungfer.  Theoloo^v  was 
the  great  matter  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  this  study  was  by  no  means  always 
that  barren  and  verbal  trifling  which  an  ill- 
informed  modern  contempt  is  fond  of  rep- 
resenting it.  It  is  evident  that  around  the 
study  of  theology  in  the  mediaeval  Univer- 
sity of  Paris  there  worked  a  real  ferment  of 
thought,  and  very  free  thought.  But  the 
University  of  Paris  culminated  as  the  ex- 
clusive devotion  to  theological  study  de- 
clined, and  culminated  b.y  virtue  of  that 
declension." 

The  great  business  of  the  universities 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury was  that  of  scholastic  philosophy, 
wliich  largely  governed  their  teaching. 

The  scholastic  philosophy  was  "  the  le- 
gitimate development  of  the  philosophy  of 


26  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Aristotle  and  his  successors,  and  was  the 
only  philosophy  possible  in  its  day.  Nay, 
it  was  an  integral  essential  element  in 
human  progress.  It  taught  men  to  dis- 
tinguish and  define,  and  has  left  its  impress 
upon  the  language  and  thought  of  all  civ- 
ilized peoples,  'in  lines  manifold,  deep- 
graven  and  ineffaceable.'  Out  of  it  has 
grown  our  modern  civilization." 

The  schoolmen  would  freely  canvass 
the  deep  problems  of  the  mind  and  soul, 
but  would  blindly  exclude  the  new  in- 
fluences at  work  in  society.  They  had  to 
meet  the  opposition  of  the  humanists,  who 
made  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  the 
basis  of  culture.  The  humanists  were  great 
writers  and  artists,  who  worked  for  more 
modern  ideas  and  a  newer  civilization. 
They  introduced  the  Renaissance,  which 
was  a  literary  movement  that  began  in 
Italy  in  the  fourteenth  centur}-.  It  was  be- 
lieved that  vital  knowledge  was  gained  by 
knowing  oneself,  and  that  the  best  way  to 
attain  this  was  to  study  poetry,  philosophy, 


COLLECRS  IN  AMERICA.  27 

history  and  all  knowledge  that  was  created 
by  the  spirit  of  man.  Unfortunately,  the 
knowledge  of  letters  in  Italy  tended  to 
paganize  its  adherents.  Infidelity  spread 
and  immorality  abounded  in  all  ranks  of 
society. 

The  great  movement  of  the  Renaissance 
secured  a  stronghold  in  Germany,  where 
its  power  w^as  extended  to  the  established 
systems  of  instruction  and  utilized  in  the 
interests  of  a  purer  Christianity.  I\lclanc- 
tlion  and  Erasmus  and  all  the  chief  re- 
formers except  Luther,  were  eminent 
humanists  and  friends  of  classical  learning. 
They  were  outside  the  established  schools, 
and  were  the  leading  sj^irits  in  intellectual 
culture,  so  that  the  Renaissance  triumphed 
watli  the  Reformation.  These  two  forces 
imited  and  gave  spirit  and  power  to  the 
humanists.  The  influence  of  the  new 
learning  in  Germany  was  marked  by  com- 
parative freedom  from  frivolities,  skepti- 
cism and  immoralities.  There  was  a 
critical  and  enlightened  study  of  classical 


28  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

literature  and  a  reverent  and  rational  study 
of  the  Bible.  The  literary  treasures  of  an- 
tiquity were  made  to  minister  to  religion. 
The  Reformation  also  gave  fresh  impulses 
to  all  the  schools  and  institutions  of  learn- 
ing. The  school  teacher  and  preacher  of 
the  gospel  joined  hands  in  the  common 
work  of  education. 

The  universities,  however,  under  the 
control  of  the  schoolmen,  retrograded  and 
decayed  because  they  chose  to  remain  me- 
diaeval. They  refused  to  become  the  edu- 
cational agencies  of  the  times,  and  so  failed 
to  be  at  the  head  of  a  great  intellectual 
movement.  They  could  not  be  induced  to 
assimilate  the  new  studies  and  make  them- 
selves the  organ  of  the  Renaissance  and 
the  Reformation.  The  rapid  growth  of 
positive  and  experimental  science,  how- 
ever, was  fatal  to  scholasticism.  The  nar- 
row scholastic  spirit  was  exemplified  by 
Cremonini,  who  is  called  the  last  of  the 
schoolmen,  and  who  was  professor  at  Padua 
in  1631. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  29 

This  countryman  of  Galileo,  after  the 
discovery  of  Jupiter's  satellites,  judging  that 
this  discovery  contradicted  Aristotle,  would 
never  consent  to  look  through  a  telescope 
again.  One  could  not  have  a  better  inci- 
dent to  end  the  career  of  the  scholastic 
philosophy. 

The  Jesuits  adopted  a  more  liberal  spirit 
and  method.  They  established  and  con- 
trolled a  large  number  of  universities 
and  schools,  and  made  them  the  great 
channels  of  the  movement  of  the  counter- 
Reformation.  Their  educational  activity 
gained  for  them  a  great  reputation  for 
teaching  and  a  large  patronage.  In  1710, 
they  had  612  colleges,  157  normal  schools, 
24  universities  and  200  missions.  They 
were  inspired  not  so  much  by  the  value 
they  placed  on  culture  for  its  own  sake,  as 
to  promote  the  authority  of  the  old  relig- 
ion and  prevent  heresy. 

The  powerful  initial  impulse  given  to 
the  cause  of  education  by  means  of  the  hu- 
manists and  the  reformers  in  the  fifteenth 


30  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and  sixteenth  centuries  began  to  flag  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  Protest- 
ant Church,  like  the  Catholic,  became  cold 
and  petrified.  The  universities  were  re- 
garded as  appendages  of  the  church,  and 
classical  training  largely  lost  its  hold  in 
Europe. 

The  condition  of  contemporary  institu- 
tions for  superior  instruction  in  the  old 
world  is  full  of  promise.  The  importance 
of  building  up  great  universities  is  con- 
ceded by  nearly  all  nations.  In  the  judg- 
ment of  Mr.  L.  D.  Wishard,  the  Foreign 
vSccretary  of  the  College  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  there 
are  500,000  young  men  in  Asia  in  the  high- 
class  institutions. 

The  government  of  Japan,  that  has  lately 
joined  the  Western  nations  in  the  onward 
march  of  civilization,  gives  enlightened  di- 
rection to  higher  education.  There  arc, 
besides  the  Imperial  College  of  Tokio,  five 
great  secondary  schools  located  in  dififerent 
centers  throughout  the  empire,  which  serve 
as  feeders   to   the  university.     There   are 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  31 

5,000  youth  in  Cliristian  colleges  and 
schools  in  the  kingdom.  In  the  Christian 
university  at  Kioto  there  are  600  youth 
pursuing  a  college  education  under  Chris- 
tian teaching, 

China  has  always  encouraged  colleges  for 
the  education  of  her  magistrates.  "The 
literary  class  consisting  of  the  graduates, 
and  those  who  attend  the  examinations  for 
degrees,  numbering  some  two  and  a  half 
millions,  are  the  rulers  of  China." 

There  is  a  growing  tendency  to  univers- 
al education  in  India.  "  It  is  computed," 
says  Bishop  Hurst,  "  that  in  the  small  area 
of  Calcutta  and  suburbs  there  are  28,000 
alumni  who  have  completed  the  curricu- 
lum in  the  five  Christian  colleges.  There 
are  about  2,000  who  are  alumni  or  students 
of  the  Calcutta  University,  and  there  arc 
1,000  youths  besides  who  are  studying  up 
to  the  matriculation  examinations  of  the 
university."  The  English  language  is  the 
medium  of  instruction  in  all  these  institu- 
tions.    It  niav  not  be  wide  of  the  mark  to 


82  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

suppose  that  in  all  India  there  are  not  less 
than  40,000  natives  who  have  graduated  at 
some  school  of  high  grade,  and  that  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  number  have  passed  the 
university  degrees.  The  number  is  now 
more  probably  50,000.  These  men  enjoy 
the  highest  respect  and  are  the  recognized 
leaders  of  native  thought.  Already  many 
are,  and  many  more  are  to  be  judges,  law- 
yers, magistrates,  professors,  teachers,  ora- 
tors, physicians,  engineers,  merchants, 
authors  and  journalists  of  the  countr)-. 

The  University  of  Fez,  in  Morocco,  es- 
tablished in  the  eighth  centur}',  is  one  of 
the  oldest  universities  outside  of  Asia.  The 
Mohammedan  University  at  Cairo,  in 
Egypt,  has  more  than  200  instructors  and 
10,000  students  assembled  from  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa  to  be  instructed  in  the 
Moslem  faith. 

If  we  turn  to  Europe,  we  find  that  the 
planting  and  enlarging  of  the  institutions 
for  superior  instruction  has  the  most  hope- 
ful outlook.     In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  38 

there  are  1 1  universities  with  834  profess- 
ors and  18,400  students.  Besides,  there 
are  the  old  established  and  excellent  schools 
at  Eaton,  Harrow,  Winchester  and  Rugb}'. 

A  new  era  for  the  classical  schools  of 
Germany  began  in  1783,  when  Baron  Sed- 
litz,  encouraged  by  Frederic  the  Great,  was 
able  to  revive  "  the  dormant  sparks  planted 
in  them  by  the  Renaissance  and  they 
awoke  to  a  new  life,  which  since  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century  has  drawn  the  eyes 
of  all  students  of  intellectual  progress  upon 
them."  Germany  had  in  1890,  250  gym- 
nasia and  22  universities.  The  latter  are 
manned  by  2,431  instructors  and  have 
31,803  students,  or  one  student  to  every  151 
of  the  population. 

France  has  19,152  students  in  her  pro- 
fessional and  technical  schools.  There  are 
fifteen  institutionsof  higher  learning  in  the 
University  of  France,  with  180  professors 
and  12,695  students.  These  are  under  the 
control  and  patronage  of  the  vStatc.  The 
government    appropriated  in    1889-90,   12,- 


34  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

000,000  francs  for  university  purposes. 
Besides,  there  were  expended  in  the  same 
year  99,000,000  francs  for  new  buildings 
for  the  advancement  of  higher  education. 
In  1890,  there  were  598  professional  chairs 
in  the  several  universities,  in  which  were 
taught  17,630  students,  or  one  student  to 
every  217  of  the  population. 

The  Austria-Hungary  Empire  had  in 
1891  eleven  universities,  eight  of  which 
were  in  Austria,  with  1,112  professors  and 
14,272  students.  The  remaining  three 
were  in  Hungary  and  had  322  professors 
and  4,098  students.  There  were  for  the 
same  year  in  Switzerland  nine  universities, 
with  434  professors  and  2,619  students. 

The  Catholic  Church  in  Italy  continued 
for  years  to  exert  an  unprogressive  and 
anti-intellectual  influence.  The  present 
government  of  Italy,  however,  is  fully 
awake  to  the  importance  of  a  university  ed- 
ucation for  the  people,  and  now  maintains 
several  universities  at  a  large  annual  outlay. 

This  brief  outline  reveals  the  facts  that 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  35 

all  civilized  nations  are  encouraging  and 
maintaining  schools  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  the  people,  and  suggests  that  a 
comparative  study  of  them  is  both  helpful 
and  fruitful. 

I\Iany  of  the  universities  in  the  Old 
World  lack  the  stimulus  of  the  strong  Prot- 
estant denominational  influence  and  the 
marked  religious  character  of  the  American 
colleges.  They  consequently  fail  to  attain 
the  highest  results  for  the  general  good, 
but  they  arc  inaugurating  an  intellectual 
movement  which  will  eventuate  in  a  more 
glorious  future. 


II. 


THE   PI^ANTING   OF   COLLEGES   IN   THE 
NEW  WORLD. 

Our  national  existence  came  into  fnll 
bloom  iinder  the  light  of  a  Christian  civil- 
ization. The  political,  social  and  religions 
institntions  were  snfficiently  well  organized 
in  the  Old  World  to  be  advantageously 
introduced,  with  some  modifications,  into 
a  young  nation  in  the  New  World. 

The  early  colonists  first  founded  a 
church,  then  a  school,  and  then  a  college. 
They  felt  that  the  colonial  organization 
was  incomplete  without  a  college  to  incul- 
cate such  piety,  virtue  and  intelligence  as 
would  preserve  and  perfect  the  highest 
social  order  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty.  These  colleges,  modelled  at  first 
after    the     universities    of   Europe,    soon 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  37 

mapped  out  a  pathway  for  themselves,  and 
have  now  come  to  occupy  a  unique  place 
in  our  national  life. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers  sought  to  establish 
in  the  New  World  three  great  principles : 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  to  make 
education  their  corner-stone.  The  schol- 
arly impulses  were  so  dominant  at  this 
early  day  that  when  the  entire  population 
of  New  England  did  not  exceed  four 
thousand,  the  people  determined  to  estab- 
lish a  college,  which  Cotton  Mather  says 
"was  the  best  thing  they  ever  thought  of." 
It  is  estimated  that  this  meager  population 
contained  as  many  as  one  hundred  men 
who  had  received  the  training  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  Sixty  of  them  were  from 
the  University  of  Cambridge  ;  twenty  were 
from  Oxford,  and  others,  apparently,  from 
the  Scotch  universities.  The  colleges  they 
founded  show  traces  of  all  these  institu- 
tions. These  intelligent  and  refined  men, 
with  breadth  of  culture  and  political  fore- 
sight  and   public    spirit,    constituted    the 


38  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

chief  source  of  greatness  in  the  early  clays 
of  New  England. 

The  three  leading  colonial  colleges, 
Harvard,  Yale,  and  William  and  ]Mar\-, 
were  planted  and  permeated  with  the 
spirit  of  republican  liberty  and  primitive 
Christianity.  They  began  in  a  vcr\'  modest 
way. 

Harvard,  the  oldest  of  American  col- 
leges, was  founded  in  the  beginning  of  the 
colonial  days,  only  eighteen  years  after  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock, 
and  when  Boston  was  a  village  of  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  houses,  and  when  only 
twenty-five  towns  liad  begun  to  be  settled 
in  the  colony.  In  1636,  six  years  after  the 
settlement  of  Boston,  the  colonial  legisla- 
ture voted  the  sum  of  four  hundred  pounds 
(equivalent  to  a  tax  of  fifty  cents  to  every 
person  in  tlie  colony)  towards  the  founding 
of  Harvard  College,  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  training  young  men  for  the  min- 
istr>'.  This  sum  was  increased  in  1637  by 
the  munificence  of  John  Harvard,  who  was 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  39 

a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  and  a  finished 
scholar  and  clergyman  from  England.  He 
gave  eight  hundred  pounds  and  his  library, 
consisting  of  three  hundred  \-olumes,  to- 
wards the  endowment,  whereupon  the  col- 
lege took  his  name.  "The  colony  caught 
his  spirit,"  says  Boone.  "Among  tlic  mag- 
istrates themselves,  two  lumdrcd  jDOunds 
was  subscribed,  a  part  in  Ijooks.  All  did 
something,  even  the  indigent ;  one  sub- 
scribed a  number  of  sheep ;  another,  nine 
shillings' v/orth  of  cloth;  one,  a  ten-shilling 
pewter  flagon  ;  others,  a  fruit  dish,  a  sugar 
spoon,  a  silver-tipped  jug,  one  great  salt, 
one  small  trencher  salt,  etc.  From  such 
small  beginnings  did  tlie  institution  take 
its  start.  No  rank,  no  class  of  men,  is 
inircprcscntcd.  The  school  was  of  the 
people."  There  is  nothing  in  histor}'  to 
parallel  the  heroic  spirit  and  boldness  of 
these  early  settlers  in  attempting  to  found 
a  college,  surrounded  as  the  peojile  were 
with  poverty,  scanty  subsistence,  and  sav- 
age   enemies.     The\'    did    n.ot    realize    the 


40  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

wisdom  of  their  liberality  and  sacrifice  and 
its  influence  upon  the  future  civilization  of 
the  Western  World.  Harvard  College  was 
located  at  Cambridge,  with  a  single  build- 
ing, on  less  than  three  acres  of  land.  It 
was  supported  by  government  appropria- 
tions and  private  philanthropy.  For  years 
the  college  was  financially  embarrassed. 
The  salaries  were  small,  and  for  nearly  one 
hundred  years  were  paid  out  of  the  colo- 
nial treasury.  The  President  received  a 
salary  of  $600.  The  total  grants  made  to 
the  college  by  the  colony  during  the  first 
century  amounted  to  about  $8,000.  The 
total  annual  income  from  all  sources  at 
the  close  of  the  first  century  of  its  history 
was  but  ^£750.  Down  to  1780  the  total 
amount  contributed  out  of  the  public  treas- 
ury was  $68,675  and  3,793  acres  of  land. 
Individuals  in  England  and  America  had 
likewise  given  $90,412. 

No  one  at  this  period  would  have  dared 
to  predict  that  Harvard  College  would 
have  in  1892  an  endowment  of  $12,000,000 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  41 

and  an  annual  revenue  of  more  than 
$1,000,000,  with  seventeen  departments  of 
instruction,  three  hundred  teachers,  and 
three  thousand  students.  But  such  has 
been  the  phenomenal  growth  of  some  of 
our  American  institutions. 

Among  the  colonial  colleges,  that  of 
William  and  Mary  is  one  of  the  most 
important.  As  early  as  161 7,  an  attempt 
was  made  in  England  to  raise  money  to 
found  a  college  among  the  Virginia  set- 
tlers. In  1619,  fifteen  hiindred  pounds 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer,  and  ten 
thousand  acres  of  land  were  granted  by 
the  Virginia  Company.  A  preparatory 
school  was  founded  two  years  later,  but 
owing  to  the  Indian  massacre  of  340 
settlers  which  followed,  the  enterprise  was 
suspended.  The  effort  to  found  a  college 
was  subsequently  revived  in  1660.  The 
Virginia  Assembly  enacted  that  "  for  the 
advancement  of  learning,  education  of 
youth,  supply  of  the  ministr}-,  and  promo- 
tion of  piety,  there  be  land  taken  for  a  col- 


42  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

lege  and  free  school."  Nothing  came  of 
this  until  1688,  when  a  subscription  was 
taken  from  wealthy  planters  for  twenty- 
five  hundred  poimds  for  the  college.  Five 
years  later  (1692)  the  first  royal  educational 
charter  in  America  was  granted.  The  col- 
lege was  established  at  Williamsburg,  Vir- 
ginia, and  was  given  £2,000  and  20,000 
acres  of  land,  a  tax  of  a  penny  a  pound  on 
all  tobacco  exported  from  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  and  the  duty  on  furs,  skins,  and 
liquors  imported,  besides  other  fees  and 
privileges  of  the  Surv^eyor  General's  office. 
*'  In  its  royal  foundation,  its  generous 
endowment,  and  liberal  patronage,"  says 
R.  C.  Boone,  "it  stand.s  in  sharp  contrast 
to  the  early  years  of  Harvard.  This  was 
established  by  the  Puritans,  and  stood  for 
the  severest  of  ultra-orthodox  though  dis- 
senting Protestantism ;  that  was  founded 
to  be  and  was  an  exponent  of  the  most 
formal  ceremonialism  of  the  Churcli  of 
iMigland.  Tlie  one  was  nursed  by  democ- 
racy ;  the  other  befriended  by  cavalier  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  43 

courtier.  Endowment  for  the  one  came 
from  the  purses  of  an  infant  and  needy 
settlement;  the  other  was  drawn  from  the 
royal  treasury.  The  one  was  environed 
and  shaken  for  a  hundred  years  by  the 
schisms  of  a  controversial  people ;  the 
roots  of  the  other  were  deep  in  the  great 
English  ecclesiastical  system."  This  col- 
lege has  been  called  a  school  of  statesmen. 
It  was  here  that  Jefferson,  Randolph, 
Tyler,  Monroe,  Blair,  Marshall,  and  other 
prominent  statesmen  received  their  train- 
ing. 

The  history  of  Yale  College  is  full  of 
interest.  The  original  design  of  the 
founders  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  vv^as 
to  establish  a  college.  A  lot  vv^as  set  apart 
for  this  purpose  as  early  as  1647.  A  plan 
was  proposed  in  1698  to  found  a  college, 
and  to  be  placed  under  the  general  care 
of  the  churches.  In  1700,  sixty-three  years 
after  the  founding  of  Harvard  College,  a 
society  consisting  of  eleven  ministers  met 
to  take  the  initial  step.     At  a  second  meet- 


44  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

ing,  in  the  same  year,  each  of  the  trustees, 
numbering  ten  of  the  principal  clergymen 
of  the  colony,  were  without  money,  but 
they  brought  forty  volumes  of  books,  and, 
placing  them  on  a  table,  presented  them  to 
the  body,  saying  in  substance:  "I  give 
these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college 
in  this  colony."  This  was  the  humble 
beginning  of  Yale  College.  The  colony 
had  a  population  at  this  time  of  fifteen 
thousand  people,  fifty  of  whom  were 
college-trained  men.  The  outlook  for  this 
college  was  not  very  encouraging,  in  view 
of  their  limited  means  and  scattered  popu- 
lation. The  work,  at  first,  lacked  system 
and  unity.  In  1718,  the  college  was  per- 
manently located  at  New  Haven,  Con- 
necticut, and  named  in  honor  of  Elihu 
Yale,  who  was  born  in  Boston  in  1648.  He 
received  his  education  in  England,  and 
was  afterward  made  Governor  of  Madras, 
and,  later.  Governor  of  the  Kast  India 
Company.  His  donation  to  Yale  College 
was  largely  in  books,  and  amounted  to  five 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  45 

hundred  pounds.  This  gift  was  followed 
by  that  of  Rev.  George  Berkely,  who  gave 
ninety-six  acres  of  land  in  Rhode  Island 
and  one  thousand  volumes  to  the  library. 
The  college  received  for  its  support,  in  a 
century  and  a  half,  $100,000  from  the  com- 
monwealth of  Connecticut.  It  has  been 
supported  chiefly  by  private  means.  In 
1890,  there  were  143  instructors  and  1,500 
students.  There  is  no  college  in  America 
that  has  a  more  enviable  reputation  for 
giving  a  thorough  Christian  education  to 
the  thousands  of  youth  who  have  gone 
forth  from  her  halls  of  learning. 

It  is  a  matter  of  record  that  our  ancestors 
showed  much  self-denial,  courage,  and 
genius,  to  turn  aside  from  the  work  of 
organizing  a  new  social  order,  and  the  re- 
adjustment of  themselves  to  their  sur- 
roundings in  a  new  country  to  provide  for 
the  higher  education  of  the  people.  The 
founders  and  supporters  of  these  colleges, 
as  a  rule,  were  men  of  high  intellectual 
and    reli'^ious   character,    and    worked    in- 


46  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

tensely  and  earnestly  for  the  highest  good 
of  society.  It  would  prove  an  inestimable 
blessing  to  o\ir  nation  if  ever}'  American 
citizen  were  inspired  with  the  zeal  of  the 
early  colonists  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of 
higher  education.  They,  out  of  their  pov- 
erty, poured  their  gifts  into  the  treasury  of 
the  colleges  in  order  to  leave  future  gen- 
erations a  great  and  glorious  heritage. 
Gratitude  should  prompt  us  to  excel  them 
in  our  love  for  the  education  of  the  present 
and  future  generations  by  cheerfully  giv- 
ing of  our  abundance  for  the  same  high 
and  holy  ends. 

Other  colleges  were  founded  within  the 
century.  Aside  from  the  three  colonial 
colleges,  six  more  were  founded  prior  to 
the  Revolution,  and  four  during  the  war  of 
independence.  Following  the  Revolution 
was  a  period  of  expansion,  and  by  the  close 
of  the  century'  there  were  twenty-four  col- 
leges established.  These  colleges,  scat- 
tered throughout  the  Union,  appeared  as  a 
galaxy  of  stars  in  the  literary  firmament  of 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  -17 

the    nation.     They   were  founded  and  lo- 
cated as  follows: 

Inslitution.                              State.  Date. 

1.  Harvard,  IMassachusetts,  1637 

2.  William  aiul  Mary,  Virginia,  1693 

3.  Yale,  Connecticut,  ijor 

4.  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  1746 

5.  University  of  Penn'lvanin,  Pennsylvania,  1749 

6.  Columbia,  New  York,  1754 

7.  Brown,  Rhode  Island,  1764 

8.  Dartmouth,  New  Hampshire,    1769 

9.  Queen's  Rutgers,  New  Jersey,  1766 

10.  Ilamden-Sidney,  Virginia,  1776 

11.  Washington  and  Lee,  Virginia,  17S2 

12.  Vv'ashington  University,  Maryland,  17S2 

13.  Dickinson,  Pennsylvania,  1783 

14.  St.  Johns,  IMaryland,  17S4 

15.  Nasliville,  Tennessee,  17S5 

16.  Georgetown,  Dist.  of  Columbia,  17S9 

17.  University  of  N.  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  1789 

18.  University  of  Vermont,  Vermont,  1791 

19.  Uuiversityof E.Tennessee,  Tennessee,  1792 

20.  Williams,  Massachusetts,  1793 

21.  Bowdoin,  Maine,  1794 

22.  Union,  New  York,  1795 

23.  Middlebury,  Vermont,  1795 

24.  Frederick  College,  Maryland,  1796 

It  remained  for  the  nineteenth  century 
to  exhibit  in  the  New  World  an  unprece- 
dented multiplication  and  expansion  of 
institutions  of  higher  learning. 


48  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

At  the  opening  of  the  century  there  were 
only  twenty-four  colleges  in  the  United 
States.  Thirty  years  later  the  number  had 
reached  forty-nine.  In  1850,  there  were 
120  colleges,  manned  by  1,300  teachers, 
with  17,000  students.  There  were  besides 
42  theological  seminaries,  35  medical 
schools,  and  12  law  schools. 

By  1890,  the  number  of  colleges  and 
universities  had  grown  to  415,  having  7,918 
instnictors  and  118,581  students.  There 
were  in  the  same  year  117  medical  schools, 
with  7,013  students,  and  54  law  schools, 
with  4,518  students.  These  facts  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  determination  of  the  American 
people  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  their  higher 
nature,  and  not  to  rest  content  with  ma- 
terial growth  and  the  bare  necessities  of  life. 

The  spirit  of  our  early  ancestors  was 
never  more  manifest  than  in  their  earnest 
advocacy  of  religious  liberty,  and  their  pro- 
test against  all  ecclesiastical  authority. 
The  numerous  settlements  in  different 
sections  of  the  country,  with  their  different 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  49 

nationalities  and  diverse  religious  opinions, 
tended  to  multiply  tlie  religious  denomina- 
tions and  to  establish  cliurclies  witli 
divergent  aims  and  plans.  These  inde- 
pendent sects  gave  rise  to  a  great  number 
of  schools  claiming  to  be  colleges.  These 
schools  they  regarded  as  essential  and  sup- 
plementary to  their  churches.  Harvard 
owes  its  origin  to  non-conforming  clergy- 
men. The  Episcopal  Church  claimed 
William  and  Mary  College.  The  Congre- 
gationalists  of  Connecticut  founded  Yale. 
Princeton  was  founded  under  the  auspices 
of  a  Presbyterian  synod,  and  Brown  was 
established  by  an  association  of  Baptist 
Churches.  One  hundred  and  four  of  the 
first  one  hundred  and  nineteen  colleges 
established  in  the  United  vStates  had  a  dis- 
tinctively Christian  origin.  Their  founders 
intended  that  they  should  be,  in  some 
sense,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  religious. 
Notwithstanding  their  diversity,  there  was 
unity  in  their  general  character  and  design. 
While  they   maintained  a  denominational 


60  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

character,  they  were  in  nowise  illiberal, 
and  set  np  no  religions  test  for  entrance. 

The  Christian  Churches  have  been  not 
only  pioneers  of  education,  but  their  fol- 
lowers recognize  as  never  before  the  power 
and  efficiency  of  the  Christian  College  to 
further  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 
Out  of  415  colleges  in  1S90,  316  of  them 
were  under  the  control  of  some  religious 
denomination.  These  were  distributed  in 
1890  among  the  several  denominations  as 
follows :  Methodist,  74 ;  Presbyterian,  49 ; 
Baptist,  44;  Roman  Catholic,  51;  Congre- 
gational, 22;  Christians,  20;  Lutheran,  19; 
United  Brethren,  10;  Protestant  Episcopal, 
6;  Reformed,  6;  Friends,  6;  Universalist, 
4;  ^Evangelical  Association,  2;  German 
Evangelical,  i ;  Seventh  Day  Adventist, 
I ;  New  Church  (Swedenborgian),  i. 

The  leading  denominations  are  especial- 
ly active  in  promoting  the  cause  of  higher 
education.  We  summarize  the  educational 
work  of  a  few  of  them : 

The   Congregational    Churches,   with    a 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  51 

membership  of  525,097,  had,  in  1890, 
thirty-eight  schools  of  distinctly  college 
rank,  with  1,034  instructors  and  13,601 
students.  This  denomination  has  gener- 
ously endowed  many  of  her  colleges.  She 
has  been  pre-eminent  in  her  efforts  to 
extend  a  liberal  education  to  the  people. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the 
United  States  claimed  to  have,  in  1894, 
116  colleges,  637  academies,  and  768,498 
pupils  in  parochial  schools.  This  church, 
that  numbers  among  its  adherents  one- 
tenth  of  the  population  of  this  country, 
has  one-fourth  of  all  the  colleges. 

The  Regular  Baptists  of  the  United 
States  have  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
chartered  institutions  of  learning,  with  an 
endowment  and  property  valuation  of 
$32,162,904.  Of  these,  seven  are  theo- 
logical seminaries,  with  54  professors,  776 
students,  and  $3,701,620  of  endov/ments 
and  property.  Thirty-five  are  universities 
and  colleges  open  to  both  sexes,  with  701 
professors  and  instructors,  9,088  students. 


52  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and  endowment  and  property  to  the 
amount  ot  $19,171,045.  Thirty-two  are 
colleges  exclusively  for  women,  with  388 
professors  and  instructors,  3,675  students, 
and  endowment  and  property,  $4,121,906. 
Forty-seven  are  seminaries  and  academies, 
male  and  co-education,  with  369  professors 
and  instructors,  5,250  students,  and  endow- 
ment and  property  worth  $3,787,793.  And 
thirty-one  are  institutions  of  learning  for 
colored  people  and  Indians,  several  of 
which  are  chartered  colleges,  with  279 
instructors,  5,177  students,  endowment  and 
property  worth  $1,380,540. 

Among  the  church  families  in  the  United 
States  the  Presbyterians  stand  third,  having 
about  1,500,000  members,  13,476  organiza- 
tions, and  church  property  valued  at  $94,- 
869,000.  They  have  always  been  favorable 
to  the  higher  education  of  ministers  and 
people,  and  therefore  liberal  in  support  of 
the  better  class  of  schools  and  colleges. 
They  now  have  under  their  immediate  care 
56  colleges,  with  an  enrollment  of   10,143 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  53 

students.  Tlie  estimated  value  of  property 
owned  by  these  institutions  is  $6,780,600, 
and  their  permanent  endowment  funds 
amount  to  $6,891,800.  There  are,  besides, 
four  colleges  which  are  jointly  owned  and 
patronized  by  Presbyterians  and  Congrega- 
tionalists.  In  addition  there  are  some 
forty  classical  academies,  under  the  care  of 
different  Synods  and  Presbyteries,  which 
have  over  3,000  students,  and  property 
whose  net  value  is  over  $1,000,000.  Four- 
teen theological  seminaries  are  scattered 
over  the  country,  with  more  than  1,200 
students.  These  have  property  and  en- 
dowments amounting  to  $8,164,762.  This 
makes  the  total  investment  of  the  churches 
in  classical  institutions  and  seminaries  to 
reach  the  large  sum  of  $22,837,162.  Im- 
mediately connected  with  these  halls  of 
learning  are  some  700  of  the  church's  finest 
scholars  and  most  devoted  Christians  act- 
ing as  teachers,  while  14,343  o^  '^^^  hQ.^\. 
and  brightest  young  men  and  women  sit  at 
their  feet  as  learners. 


64  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Methodism  has  been  a  great  educational 
force  in  this  country.  It  took  its  rise  in  a 
university,  and  its  leaders  were  trained  in 
the  oldest  of  English  universities.  The 
Methodist  zeal  for  higher  education  has 
put  her  in  the  front  ranks  of  the  moral  and 
educational  forces  of  the  age.  Though 
among  the  youngest  of  Christian  bodies  of 
this  country,  tlie  magnitude  and  extent  of 
her  educational  work  is  .second  to  none. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  com- 
prises less  than  one-half  of  the  Methodists 
in  the  United  States,  yet  she  has  49  insti- 
tutions of  collegiate  grade,  with  property 
and  endowment  of  over  $17,000,000,  and 
from  the  6,000  students  there  are  sent  out 
annually  1,500  graduates  with  the  Bach- 
elor's degree.  In  1892,  she  had  195  institu- 
tions of  learning  of  ever)'  grade,  with 
property  and  endowment  valued  at  $26,- 
000,000,  with  2,343  professors  and  teachers, 
and  40,026  students. 

"The  increase  in  population  in  the 
United  States  from  1880  to   1890  was  26.7 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  55 

per  cent. ;  for  the  same  period  the  increase 
of  stndents  in  college  classes  in  all  schools 
in  the  United  States  was  53,1  per  cent.;  in 
all  Methodist  schools  in  the  United  States, 
52.3  per  cent."  It  is  certainly  a  hopeful 
indication  of  the  ambition  and  lofty  pur- 
pose of  Methodist  youth  that  one-eighth  of 
the  whole  number  of  students  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  are  Methodists,  seek- 
ing the  broadest  educational  facilities.  A 
church  with  such  a  record  will  not  lose  her 
hold  upon  the  intellect  and  scholarship  of 
the  age. 

Methodism  has  wisely  undertaken  to 
establish  the  American  University  in 
Washington  City.  Tlie  founding  of  such 
a  university  was  the  dream  of  Washington 
and  other  great  statesmen.  This  is  the 
most  strategic  educational  center  in  Amer- 
ica. The  scientific  and  literary  treasures 
of  the  government,  aggregating  a  cost  of 
more  than  $33,000,000,  and  maintained  at 
an  annual  expense  of  three  and  one-half 
millions  of  dollars,  will  be  at  the  service  of 


56  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

this  university.  The  funds  of  the  uni- 
versity will  not  be  tied  up  in  expensive 
buildings  and  equipment,  but,  like  the 
great  German  universities,  employed  in 
paying  enthusiastic  professors  of  the 
broadest  scholarship  and  culture  to  in- 
struct graduate  students  in  every  depart- 
ment of  learning,  and  to  widen  the  horizon 
of  knowledge.  This  is  certainly  one  of  the 
most  magnificent  opportunities  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  Church  to  establish  a 
powerful  and  comprehensive  agency  to  help 
uphold  and  expand  and  organize  a  Chris- 
tian civilization.  It  will  gain  an  increas- 
ing power  through  coming  generations. 
The  Federal  Government  has,  likewise, 
favored  and  materially  encouraged  the 
cause  of  education.  The  wisest  statesmen 
believe  that  the  colleges  are  not  solely  the 
auxiliary  of  the  churches,  but  that  they 
have  an  equal  value  to  the  State.  They 
firmly  believe  that  education  is  essential  to 
the  general  good  of  the  community,  and 
worthy  of  favorable  legislation.     "  During 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  57 

the  first  century  of  its  existence,  the  United 
States  made  land  grants  for  educational 
purposes  of  nearly  80,000,000  acres,  a  terri- 
tory greater  than  all  the  landed  area  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  more  than 
half  of  all  France.  What  a  tribute  to  learn- 
ing this  munificence  presents.  Of  these 
gifts  it  is  estimated  that  more  than  80  per 
cent,  went  to  permanent  funds  for  the  ele- 
mentary schools." 

The  spirit  of  the  American  people  was 
shown  in  the  Magna  Cliarta  of  the  North- 
west, framed  in  1787,  which  declared  that 
"  Religion,  morality  and  knowledge  being 
necessary  to  good  government  and  the  haj)- 
piness  of  mankind,  schools  and  the  means 
of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged." 
In  obedience  to  this  spirit,  the  Federal 
government  made  grants  of  land  to  encour- 
age and  support  institutions  of  learning,  as 
follows :  "  One  section  of  land  in  every 
township  for  common  schools,  and  not  less 
than  two  townships  in  every  State  for 
founding    a   university."      Appropriations 


68  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

have  since  been  made  by  the  general  gov- 
ernment to  establish  and  foster  State  uni- 
versities. In  1862,  the  Morrill  act  was 
passed  by  Congress,  whereby  a  liberal 
grant  was  made  to  provide  for  "  the  en- 
dowment, siipport  and  maintenance  of  at 
least  one  college,  where  the  leading  object 
should  be,  without  excluding  other  scien- 
tific and  classical  studies,  and  including 
military  tactics,  to  teach  such  branches  of 
learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and 
mechanic  arts,  in  such  manner  as  the  leg- 
islature of  the  States  may  prescribe,  in 
order  to  promote  the  liberal  and  practical 
education  of  the  industrial  classes  in  the 
several  pursuits  and  professions  of  life." 
This  act  was  supplemented  in  1890  by  an 
additional  provision  of  $25,000  a  year  for 
the  better  equipment  and  endowment  of 
each  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and 
mechanic  arts.  The  land  grant  made  by 
the  general  government  to  all  the  States 
aggregated  9,597,840  acres,  from  which 
was  realized  $15,866,371. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  59 

The  Hatch  act  of  1887  made  generoiis 
Federal  provision  for  the  establishment  of 
agricultural  experiment  stations  "  for  the 
investigation  of  the  laws  and  principles 
that  govern  the  successful  and  profitable 
tillage  of  the  soil." 

The  State  universities  numbered  30  in 
1890,  having  12,846  students  and  964  in- 
structors. The  value  of  the  grounds  and 
buildings  aggregated  $15,146,588,  and  the 
productive  fund  $10,411,964.  The  total  in- 
come for  the  State  schools  reached  the 
handsome  sum  of  $2,176,250.  These  State 
universities  have  become  fixed  factors  in 
our  civilization,  and  give  promise  of  ac- 
complishing a  great  work  for  the  people. 
What  the  character  of  the  Vv^ork  shall  be, 
remains  with  the  American  people  to  decide. 

This  centur>^  has  witnessed  in  the 
United  States  the  beginning  and  growth  of 
Colleges  for  Women.  This  is  the  fruit  of 
the  increasing  development  of  the  idea  and 
sentiment  in  favor  of  women  sharing  with 
men  in  the  privileges  of  the  highest  culture 


60  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and  all  rational  enjoyment.  Exclnsive 
privileges  and  distinctions  on  acconnt  of 
sex  are  contrary  to  the  character  and  genins 
of  a  free  people.  "  If,"  says  President 
Dwight,  "  edncation  is  for  the  growth  of 
the  human  mind — the  personal  luiman 
mind — and  if  the  glor>'  of  it  is  in  npbnild- 
ing  and  outbuilding  of  the  mind,  the 
womanly  mind  is  just  as  important,  just  as 
beautiful,  just  as  much  a  divine  creation 
with  wide-reaching  possibilities  as  the 
manly  mind.  When  we  have  in  our  vision 
serious  thought  as  the  working  force  and 
end  of  education,  the  woman  makes  the 
same  claim  with  the  man,  and  her  claim 
rests,  at  its  deepest  foundation,  upon  the 
same  grand  idea."  The  history  of  the 
movement  in  favor  of  the  collegiate  educa- 
tion of  women  is  interesting  and  instnict- 
ive.  One  of  the  first  steps  in  this  direc- 
tion was  taken  by  Mrs.  Emma  Willard, 
who  opened  a  school  for  girls  in  Mid- 
dlebury,  Vermont,  in  1808,  which  in  1819 
was   removed   to    Waterford,    New    York. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMEIUCA.  61 

Two  years  later  she  founded  the  Troy  Fe- 
male Seminary.     Education  for  women  re- 
ceived a  new  impulse  through  Miss  Catha- 
rine E.  Beecher,  who,   in  1822,  opened  at 
Hartford,  Conn.,  an  academy  for  girls,  and 
it   met   with   excellent   success.      Further 
efforts  were  made  to  extend  education  to 
young  women  of  more  mature  years  and 
give  them  the  advantages  of  an  intellectual 
training    equal    with    that  of  colleges    for 
men.    The  Wesleyan  Seminary  for  women 
was  founded  at  Kent's  Hill,  Maine,  in  182 1, 
and  Granville  College  for  women  in  1834. 
Through  the  earnest  effort  of  Miss  Mary 
Lyon,  ?kIount    Holyoke    Female   Seminary 
was  incorporated  February  10,   1836.     The 
Elmira    Female    College    was    founded   in 
1855.     These   colleges    multiplied    rapidly 
and  now  there  are  more  than  two  hundred 
institutions  of  higher  learning  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  education  of  women. 

Colleges  for  women  have  been  quite  lib- 
erally endowed  by  high-minded  and  gen- 
erous   individuals,    and    the    stability    and 


62  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

permanency  of  these  colleges  have  thus 
been  secured.  Vassar  College  was  incor- 
porated in  1861.  Mr.  Matthew  Vassar,  the 
founder,  gave  200  acres  of  land  near  Pough- 
keepsie,  on  the  Hudson,  which  with  his 
other  gifts  aggregated  $788,000.  The  total 
productive  endowment  in  1892  was  $1,018,- 
000,  and  the  value  of  the  grounds,  build- 
ings, etc.,  was  $792,080  additional. 

Wellesley  College  was  founded  by  H.  F. 
Duraut  in  1875,  at  Wellesley,  near  Boston. 
He  gave  400  acres  of  land  and  an  endow- 
ment of  more  than  one  million  dollars, 
vSniith  College  was  founded  through  the 
beneficence  of  Sophia  Smith,  who  gave 
$400,000.  Bryn  Mawr,  near  Philadelphia, 
was  opened  in  1885,  through  the  generosity 
of  J.  W.  Taylor,  M.  D.,  whose  gifts 
amounted  to  $1,000,000. 

In  1890,  there  were  179  colleges  devoted 
exclusively  to  the  education  of  women, 
having  grounds  and  buildings  valued  at 
5^^  ^  vS59>379>  with  scientific  apparatus  valued 
at  $419,000  more,  and  the  productive  funds 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  03 

aggregated  $2,609,661.  The  total  number 
of  students  in  these  colleges  for  the  same 
year  was  24,851,  and  taught  by  2,299 
teachers. 

The  co-education  of  the  sexes  in  colleges 
is  also  constantly  growing  in  favor  among 
those  colleges  which  have  given  it  the 
most  thorough  trial.  Two  hundred  and 
seventy-two  colleges  in  this  country,  or 
65.5  per  cent.,  excluding  those  devoted  ex- 
clusively to  the  education  of  women,  are 
open  equally  to  both  sexes.  The  favorable 
results  as  to  scholarship,  manners  and 
morals  of  the  two  sexes  have  abundantly 
confirmed  the  wisdom  of  this  method. 
The  question  of  co-education  has  its  com- 
plications, but  with  proper  restrictions 
these  are  not  serious.  There  is  no  more 
danger  of  women  developing  bold  or  mas- 
culine qualities  of  character  in  a  college 
where  co-education  exists  than  in  the  high 
schools,  or  in  social  and  business  life  out- 
side of  college.  The  charm  and  beauty  of 
a  lady  are  found  in  the  qualities  of  modesty 


64  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and  grace.  The  private  life  of  the  ladies 
attending  a  college  where  co-education  ex- 
ists is  in  most  cases  so  regulated  as  to  se- 
cure such  home  care  and  retirement  as  will 
help  to  preserve  the  charming  qualities  of 
womanhood.  The  ladies  in  these  schools 
gain  a  certain  poise  and  independence 
without  boldness,  which  is  of  inestimable 
advantage.  Aside  from  this  they  get  a 
knowledge  of  character  and  life  that  is  not 
likely  to  be  secured  in  any  other  way. 

The  growth  of  the  colleges  since  the 
war  in  the  sixteen  Southern  States  for  both 
white  and  black  population  is  very  en- 
couraging. Fully  one-third  of  the  colleges 
and  universities  and  one-third  of  the  in- 
structors and  students  of  the  nation  are  lo- 
cated in  the  Southern  States.  Many  of 
these  colleges  are  only  first-class  acad- 
emies, but  they  are  doing  an  excellent 
service.  Benefactions  in  belialf  of  higher 
education  in  the  South  have  been  .some- 
thing phenomenal  in  the  history  of  philan- 
thropic work.     The  Peabody  Fund  for  ed- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  65 

ucatioii  in  the  South  was  $3,100,000.  The 
Slater  Fund  $1,000,000.  Tulane  and  Van- 
derbilt  each  gave  $1,500,000  towards  found- 
ing universities  in  the  South.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  more  than  $20,000,000  have 
been  given  by  special  donors  for  this  pur- 
pose since  the  war.  This  vast  sum  has 
been  augmented  by  the  annual  gifts  of  the 
churches  for  this  object.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  had  expended  up  to 
1892  the  sum  of  $6,187,630.46  to  promote 
higher  institutions  of  learning  among  both 
white  and  black  population  in  the  South. 
Other  denominations  have  given  largely 
in  the  same  direction.  These  benefactions 
have  given  new  impulses  to  the  cause  of 
education,  which  have  been  of  vital  im- 
portance in  the  regeneration  of  the  social 
conditions  of  this  section  of  the  country. 
The  annual  outlay  for  schools  in  the 
Southern  States  increased  from  $11,400,000 
in  1878  to  $20,000,000  in  1888.  All  these 
educational  influences  have  contributed  to 
establish  a  New  South   that  ])resages  far- 


66  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

reaching  possibilities  for  good  for  all  time 
to  come. 

The  growth,  number  and  progress  of  the 
American  colleges  and  universities  is  more 
and  more  attracting  the  attention  of  the 
civilized  world.  In  1890,  they  numbered 
415,  with  grounds  and  buildings  valued  at 
$65,000,000,  with  scientific  apparatus  and 
libraries  valued  at  $9,000,000,  and  the  pro- 
ductive endowment  funds  aggregated  $75,- 
000,000.  Tlie  total  income  of  these  higher 
institutions  of  learning  from  all  sources  was 
$11,000,000. 

The  colleges  and  universities  and  pro- 
fessional schools  in  the  United  States  for 
the  same  year  contained  135,242  students 
and  7,819  instructors.  In  the  colleges  and 
universities  alone  there  were  46,131  men 
and  11,992  women.  There  were  34,964  in 
the  normal  schools,  6,349  in  agricultural 
and  mechanical  colleges,  and  35,806  in  the 
various  professional  schools.  Besides, 
there  were  117  medical  schools  with  4,552 
students,  and  145  theological  schools  with 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  67 

7,013  students,  and  54  law  schools  having 
5,518  students. 

These  facts  give  us  some  faint  concep- 
tion of  the  extensive  educational  agencies 
which  have  been  provided,  chiefly  by  pri- 
vate enterprise  and  by  the  churches,  for 
higher  education. 

It  is  claimed  by  some  that  the  number 
of  colleges  in  this  country  exceeds  at 
present  the  demand.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that  we  are  building  for  a 
population  that  is  likely  to  reach  500,000,- 
000  people.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that 
the  planting  and  expansion  of  colleges  on 
a  meager  basis  has  been  somewhat  over- 
done. The  duty  of  the  hour  is  for  the 
American  people  to  cease  establishing 
more  colleges,  and  to  give  their  attention 
to  strengthening  those  already  founded,  in 
order  that  they  may  increase  their  power 
and  efficiency.  The  founders  have  planted 
better  than  they  knew.  The  unfavorable 
conditions  and  sacrifice  surrounding  many 
of  their  beginnings  strengthen  the  desire 


68  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

that  these  colleges  may  grow  and  flouris^i 
with  each  succeeding  generation,  and  con- 
tinue in  their  beneficent  work  of  niouldinjjj 
Christian  character  and  promoting  human 
brotherhood. 


III. 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE    AMERICAN 
COLLEGE. 

The  American  college  occupies  a  dis- 
tinctive place  among  tlie  edncational  sys- 
tems of  the  world.  It  differs  from  the 
English  and  Scotch  systems,  and  is  diverse 
in  form  and  purpose  from  the  German  uni- 
versity system.  The  American  college 
signifies  more  than  the  English  Grammar 
school,  the  French  Lycee  or  the  German 
Gy7nnasiuvi^  and  its  course  of  study  is  broad- 
er and  more  comprehensive.  The  German 
gy7nnasia  hold  the  place  of  our  high 
schools  and  academies,  and  their  course  of 
study  carries  the  student  through  what  is 
an  equivalent  to  our  Sophomore  year  in 
college. 

The  colleges  established  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  our  country  were  shaped  in  some 


70  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

measure  after  the  English  model,  but  the 
American  college  of  to-day  "  is  the  bright 
consummate  flower  of  democracy."  We 
may  apply  to  it  what  Lowell  says  of 
Lincoln  : 

"  For  him  her  old-world  moulds  aside  she  threw, 

And  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West, 

With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new." 

The  American  colleges  have  held  fast  to 
the  best  of  the  ancient  learning  and  util- 
ized the  best  experiences  and  ideas  of  the 
English,  German  and  French  systems  of 
education,  and  mapped  out  a  distinctive 
system  for  themselves.  They  have  sought 
to  meet  the  needs  of  our  age  and  the  re- 
quirements of  our  generation,  and  we  have 
as  a  product  the  modern  American  college, 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  people  and  the 
formation  of  a  strong  national  character. 

The  American  people  believe  in  individ- 
ual rights  and  personal  sovereignty.  They 
have  accordingly  shaped  their  institutions 
in  harmony  with  this  view.     In  Germany 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  71 

the  man  is  educated  largely  for  the  State, 
but  here  we  educate  the  man  as  a  citizen 
and  as  an  individual  whose  intrinsic  dig- 
nity and  value  are  worthy  of  training.  The 
American  college  makes  adequate  pro- 
vision for  the  full  development  of  all  the 
human  powers  and  the  exercise  of  the 
functions  of  the  noblest  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Her  halls  have  always  been 
wide  open  to  all  the  youth  of  the  land,  who 
have  gathered  by  the  thousand  to  drink  in 
"  the  American  spirit  of  freedom  and 
brotherhood  of  mankind,  of  reverence  for 
God,  for  law,  for  the  Bible  and  for  the  Sab- 
bath." Our  colleges  have  been  built  up 
through  the  generous  and  effective  support 
of  the  several  churches,  and  of  the  patriotic 
people.  For  more  than  two  and  a  half 
centuries  it  has  been  the  settled  policy  of 
the  American  people  to  maintain  and  per- 
petuate colleges.  They  are  deeply  rooted 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  since  they  are 
the  offspring  of  their  free-offerings  and 
voluntary  sacrifices. 


72  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 


A  few  unthinking  people  are  indifferent 
and  fail  to  see  and  realize  the  vital  rela- 
tions the  colleges  sustain  to  the  national 
welfare ;  but  the  more  enlightened  public 
opinion  is  eager  and  restless  for  their  ad- 
vancement and  influence.  Our  colleges 
are  the  pride  and  the  crowning  glor\'  of  the 
American  people.  They  bring  the  nation 
more  renown  than  all  her  fertile  plains, 
rich  treasures  and  splendid  palaces. 

In  order  to  particularize  some  of  the  dis- 
tinctive features  of  the  American  college, 
we  need  to  understand  our  educational 
system  as  a  whole.  We  start  with  the 
public  school  and  impart  to  the  youth  a 
primary  education.  In  the  high  school  or 
academy  the  pupil  is  introduced  into  a 
higher  circle  of  thought  and  life  and  then 
passes  on  to  the  college,  where  the  aim  is 
to  extend  general  culture  and  prepare  for 
special  work.  The  educational  system  cul- 
minates in  the  university,  which  is  devoted 
chiefly  to  technical  and  professional  educa- 
tion. 


COLLEGES  LN^AMERICA.  73 

These  educational  agencies  do  not  differ 
in  kind,  but  in  degree.  There  is  not  as 
yet,  however,  a  sufficient  co-ordination  of 
them  to  secure  the  greatest  economy  of 
time  and  strength  in  mental  effort.  The 
richest  and  broadest  culture  and  scholar- 
ship demand  a  friendly  and  harmonious  re- 
lation between  all  of  these  educational 
agencies.  We  are  approaching  co-opera- 
tion and  unity  on  these  lines,  but  there  are 
practical  difficulties  which  it  is  hoped  that 
time  will  help  to  solve.  One  of  the  diffi- 
culties has  been  that  the  standard  of  ad- 
mission into  many  of  our  colleges  has  out- 
grown the  capacity  of  the  high  schools. 
In  order  to  supply  the  need  of  a  more 
thorough  preparation,  a  preparatory  de- 
partment has  been  maintained  in  many 
colleges.  The  present  aim  and  tendency 
of  our  educational  system  is  to  introduce 
the  pupil  from  the  high  school  to  the  rank 
of  Freshman  in  collesfc.  This  condition 
can  not  become  general  unless  there  be  a 
greater   differentiation    in    the    courses    of 


74  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

study  in  our  high  schools.  It  is  encourag- 
ing to  see  that  in  many  States  the  high 
schools,  academies  and  colleges  are  coming 
to  a  helpful  understanding  of  each  other's 
province,  and  that  there  is  a  practical  agree- 
ment among  them  regarding  a  imiform 
minimum  requirement  for  entrance  into 
the  Freshman  class  in  college. 

The  prescribed  courses  of  study  in  the 
average  American  college  are  broad  and 
comprehensive.  They  cover  the  general 
field  of  knowledge.  The  regular  parallel 
courses  of  study  are  usually  designated 
Classical,  Scientific,  Literary  and  Philo- 
sophical. These  special  arrangements  aim 
to  encourage  thought  and  study  along  dif- 
ferent lines.  The  groupings  vary  accord- 
ing to  the  time  devoted  to  the  study  of  lan- 
guages and  other  special  branches.  Kach 
of  the  courses  includes  the  study  of  lan- 
giiage,  mathematics,  science,  mental  and 
moral  philosophy,  and  covers  a  period  of 
four  years,  generally  designated  Freshman, 
Sophomore,  Junior  and  Senior  years.     As 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  75 

a  rule,  in  the  Classical  course  tlie  study  of 
Greek  and  Latin  is  required,  while  Greek 
is  omitted  in  the  Scientific  course,  and 
more  attention  is  given  to  the  study  of  the 
sciences.  The  Literary  and  Philosophical 
courses  substitute  one  or  more  of  the 
modern  languages  for  the  ancient  classics. 
The  number  of  these  courses  may  be  mul- 
tiplied indefinitely,  especially  in  the  uni- 
versities where  the  grouping  of  studies  is 
essential  to  the  highest  success. 

The  work  of  the  college  and  the  university 
so  overlap  each  other  that  it  is  difficult  to 
make  clear  their  distinction.  The  word 
university  is  an  elastic  term  in  the  United 
States,  because  until  within  a  brief  period 
we  have  had  nothing  more  than  colleges. 
Many  of  our  colleges  are  called  universities 
because  of  their  chartered  privileges,  but 
their  aim  is  to  become  universities  in  fact. 

Hence  the  terms  are  often  used  inter- 
changeably. The  few  rmiversities  we  have 
are  modelled  largely  after  those  in  Ger- 
many and  have  grown  up  by  a  natural  de- 


7«  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

velopmeiit  out  of  colleges.  The  reverse  is 
true  in  England,  where  the  college  has 
grown  up  within  the  university.  The  col- 
lege originally  signified  a  society  of 
scholars.  In  this  country  it  is  an  incor- 
porated school  of  instruction  in  the  liberal 
arts,  having  one  faculty,  with  advanced 
courses  of  study. 

The  college  and  university  differ  first  in 
their  aim.  The  college  endeavors  to  dis- 
cipline the  mind  and  form  character  for 
the  broader  work  in  a  chosen  field  of 
university  study.  The  thorough  scholastic 
training  is  now  regarded  quite  an  essential 
preparation  for  the  more  advanced  work 
of  the  university.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
university  aims  at  universal  culture,  and 
includes,  if  possible,  every  description  of 
knowledge  for  the  training  of  specialists  in 
the  various  professions.  Its  aim  is  rather  to 
do  graduate  work  exclusively. 

Again  they  differ  in  ^xqat  courses  of  study. 
In  the  college,  the  courses  of  study  include 
the  higher  branches  of  learning ;  and  are 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  77 

SO  arranged  as  to  give  the  student  an  out- 
line survey  of  the  field  of  knowledge.  The 
study  is  largely  restricted  to  preparing  the 
student  for  his  advanced  professional  and 
technical  work.  The  university  goes 
further  and  arranges  its  courses  of  study 
so  as  to  supplement  the  instruction  given 
in  college  and  direct  the  student  in  an  ad- 
vanced grade  of  work  in  any  department  of 
intellectual  life.  The  courses  have  the 
broadest  scope  and  embrace  departments 
in  liberal  arts,  law,  medicine,  theology  and 
science,  each  having  a  faculty  composed  of 
able  professors.  Gladstone  gives  the  true 
historic  idea  of  a  university  in  these  words  : 
"  To  methodize,  perpetuate  and  apply  all 
knowledge  which  exists  and  to  adopt  and 
take  up  into  itself  every  new  branch  as  it 
comes  successively  into  existence." 

The  college  and  the  university  likewise 
differ  in  their  victhods  of  work.  The  col- 
lege seeks  the  highest  results  in  discipline. 
Its  method  is  more  formal  and  didactic. 
In  the  later  years  of  the  college   course  a 


78  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

certain  amount  of  specialization  is  usually 
allowed,  both  for  the  ends  of  discipline  and 
as  a  provision  for  the  work  of  the  uni- 
versity proper.  The  university  adopts 
methods  of  work  along  the  line  of  original 
discover}',  literary  productivity,  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  kingdom  of  knowledge. 
The  inspiring  aim  of  the  university  is  the 
discovery  of  truth.  The  student  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  research  passes  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown,  and  feels  that  he 
lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  investigation,  and 
in  the  center  of  the  latest  thought. 

Finally,  they  differ  in  their  resources. 
The  college  is  usually  limited  in  its  means 
and  appliances.  On  the  contrary,  the  uni- 
versity, with  abundant  resources,  great 
libraries  and  laboratories,  affords  a  broader 
scope  and  wider  opportunities  for  work  and 
growth. 

The  State  and  denominational  colleges 
have  a  common  intellectual  aim.  The  first 
of  the  two  often  have  larger  resources  and 
aim  to  give  more  instruction  in  "  practical 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  79 

affairs."  Both  State  an(i  denominational 
colleges  are  generous  and  liberal  in  tlieir 
spirit  and  teaching.  It  is  somewhat  un- 
fortunate that  there  should  have  arisen  any 
occasion  for  criticism  by  the  friends  of  either 
the  State  universities  or  of  those  under  de- 
nominational control.  One  class  of  critics 
are  ready  to  declare  that  the  colleges  and  uni- 
versities under  Protestant  denominational 
control  are  sectarian.  Whereas  it  is  unfair 
to  designate  such  colleges  as  sectarian, 
since  as  a  class  they  are  not  founded  solely 
in  the  interest  of  any  single  Christian  sect, 
and  are  not  intolerant  and  bigoted.  They 
set  up  no  denominational  standard  for  en- 
trance, and  teach  no  particular  creed  or 
dogma,  but  extend  their  privileges  equally 
to  all  and  on  the  same  basis  as  the  State 
universities.  Hence,  they  are  denomina- 
tional, but  not  sectarian. 

It  is  equally  unfair  to  assert  that  our 
State  universities  are  godless  and  run  by 
political  parties.  The  managers  of  them 
have  possibly  laid  themselves  open  to  this 


80  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

criticism  because  they  often  fail  to  recog- 
nize either  the  scientific  bases  or  practical 
value  of  religion  and  do  not  permit  it  to 
rank  equally  with  the  other  sciences  in  the 
courses  of  study.  The  right  policy  would 
not  necessarily  involve  the  teaching  of  re- 
ligious dogma,  but  only  of  facts  concerning 
man's  spiritual  nature,  and  the  relative  im- 
portance of  the  Christian  religion  among 
the  religious  systems  of  the  world  to  meet 
the  demands  of  man  as  a  religious  being. 
No  reasonable  man  in  a  Christian  nation 
should  object  to  this  recognition  of  the 
science  of  religion.  The  State  universities 
should  be  at  least  religious  in  character 
without  having  any  denominational  bias. 
The  teaching  of  dogma  in  our  colleges 
for  the  sake  of  dogma  would  be  narrow 
bigotry  and  rightly  deserving  of  censure. 
The  State  universities  are  as  likely  to  be 
open  to  this  charge  as  the  denominational 
colleges.  The  dogmas  of  scientists,  politi- 
cians, legalists  and  physicians  are  as  intol- 
erant and  engender  as  much  strife  as  those 


COl.IJUll'lS  IN  ADIERICA.  81 

of  theologians.  We  are  glad  to  believe, 
liowever,  that  the  dogmatic  spirit  in  all 
lines  of  study  is  fast  disappearing  from  our 
American  colleges,  and  from  the  professions. 
Again,  the  majority  of  the  professors  in 
the  State  universities  are  avowedly  Chris- 
tian. Possibly  one-third  of  the  State  uni- 
versities have  Christian  clergymen  for 
presidents.  After  careful  inquiry  from 
those  in  a  position  to  know,  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  in  one  of  the  oldest  State  uni- 
versities there  were  eight  professors  out  of 
more  than  one  hundred  who  were  unbe- 
lievers or  skeptics,  and  in  one  of  the 
youngest  there  were  but  three  known  skep- 
tics among  more  than  eighty  professors. 
Even  this  small  number  should  not  be 
possible,  because  one  "  anti-Christian 
sophist  or  a  velvet-footed  infidel "  may 
work  moral  and  religious  disaster  to  the 
young  in  any  college.  "A  college,"  remarks 
President  Ciates,  "must  be  either  avow- 
edly and  openly  Christian,  or  by  the  very 
absence  of  avowed  Christian  influence  it 


82  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

will  be  strongly  and  decidedly  un-Christian 
in  its  effects  upon  students." 

The  State  universities  will  gain  greater 
influence  if  they  will  rigidly  exclude  from 
their  teaching  force  the  brilliant  skeptic 
who  "  becomes  the  center  of  a  coterie  with- 
out his  gifts,  dazzled  by  his  boldness,  in- 
fected by  his  skepticism ;"  but  rather 
employ  Christian  professors  who  will  in- 
spire a  "  noble  ambition  that  imites  in  its 
scope  the  life  that  now  is  and  that  which 
is  to  come,  that  comprehends  earth-born 
sciences  and  the  philosophy  of  salvation, 
the  tongues  of  men  and  the  language  of 
the  city  of  the  great  King." 

Likewise  the  State  and  denominational 
colleges  and  universities  have  the  largest 
freedom  and  independence.  Their  boards 
of  management  are  comparatively  free 
from  interference  on  the  part  of  party  pol- 
iticians and  demagogues,  or  of  those  in- 
fluenced by  denominational  prejudices. 
Party  leaders  in  the  church  or  state  may 
be  equally  liable  to  an  undue  bias  or  a  par- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  S3 

tisan  spirit  and  influence  which  is  beneath 
the  dignity  of  those  who  claim  to  represent 
the  people  in  a  Christian  Republic. 

The  American  college  is  a  chartered 
institution,  under  the  control  of  a  Board  of 
Trustees  or  Rcgen's.  These  boards  are 
composed  of  about  twenty  or  thirty  repre- 
sentative men  in  church  or  state.  They 
are,  in  some  cases,  a  self-perpetuating  cor- 
poration, while  others  are  chosen  for  a 
term  of  years  by  the  affiliating  conferences 
or  synods.  Occasionally,  the  Alumni  of 
the  college  may  elect  some  of  the  Trustees. 
The  State  universities  are  under  a  Board 
of  Regents  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
with  the  consent  of  the  legislative  body,  or 
are  chosen  by  popular  election.  These 
boards  meet  once  or  twice  a  year.  Their 
principal  duties  are  to  make  laws  for  the 
government  of  the  college;  appoint  the 
officers  and  professors,  and  fix  their  salaries 
and  tenure  of  office,  and  hold  all  property 
entrusted  to  the  college,  and  retain  general 
supervision  and  control  of  all  expenditures. 


84  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

These  boards  are  the  ultimate  source  of 
authority  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
welfare  of  the  college. 

The  Chicago  University  and  some  others 
have  a  University  Council^  composed  of  the 
chief  administrative  officials  of  the  uni- 
versity. They  direct  all  administrative 
matters.  The  University  Senate  is  com- 
posed of  the  heads  of  the  departments  of 
instruction.  It  is  their  duty  to  control  all 
educational  affairs.  The  Harvard  Cor- 
poration consists  of  the  President,  five 
Fellows,  and  the  Treasurer,  with  the  right 
to  fill  their  own  vacancies.  Their  acts  are 
"alterable"  by  the  Board  of  Overseers^  to 
whom  they  are  responsible.  This  board 
consists  of  thirty-two  members,  elected  by 
the  Alumni. 

The  Facility  is  a  body  of  instructors. 
The  universities  may  have  as  many  facul- 
ties as  there  are  departments  of  instruc- 
tion. In  the  American  college  proper 
there  is  but  one  faculty,  composed  of  all 
the  instructors.     It  varies  in  number  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  85 

efficiency  according  to  the  number  of  stu- 
dents and  financial  resources  of  the  college. 
The  proportionate  number  of  professors  to 
the  students  follows  the  custom  of  the  best 
English  and  German  universities,  which 
usually  is  one  professor  for  every  twenty  or 
thirty  students.  The  Dean  is  an  adminis- 
trative officer  of  a  department  in  a  univer- 
sity, and  is  concerned  wnth  the  internal 
discipline  and  executive  affairs. 

The  Presidents  of  the  American  colleges 
are  usually  clergymen.  They  are  chosen 
with  reference  to  their  pre-eminent  ability 
as  scholars  and  administrators.  The  Pres- 
ident has  oversight  of  the  plan  of  instruc- 
tion, the  maintenance  of  discipline,  and 
is  the  representative  head  of  the  college 
before  the  public.  Considerable  import- 
ance is  attached  to  the  office  of  the  Presi- 
dent, since  the  success  of  the  college  in  a 
great  measure  depends  on  his  individual 
talent  and  character. 

The  American  college  professors^  as  a 
class,  may  be   characterized  as  having  a 


86  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

living  scholarship  and  a  gennine  specu- 
lative spirit,  combined  with  tact  and  firm- 
ness in  teaching.  They  are  enthusiasticalh" 
devoted  to  their  work.  There  is  a  growing 
disposition  to  break  away  from  mechanical 
and  plodding  routine,  and  adopt  an  intel- 
lectual, energizing  style  of  questions  in 
class  work,  that  elicit  enthusiasm  and  aid 
the  student.  Lecturing  is  but  little  used. 
The  teaching  is  more  of  an  active,  earnest 
conversation  on  a  .special  subject  between 
the  teacher  and  the  pupil.  The  instructor 
seeks  to  lead,  but  not  to  carry,  the  student 
through  the  study.  There  is  also  less 
iuclination  to  dogmatize,  and  the  student's 
mind  is  trained  to  habits  of  original  and 
philosophical  investigation. 

The  students  in  our  American  colleges 
have  been  well  estimated  by  Professor  Von 
Hoist  in  these  words :  "  I  have  not  only 
visited,  but  lived  in  a  number  of  countries, 
and  the  results  of  my  obser\'ations  of  their 
higher  educated  youth  is  that,  though  by 
no  means  as  to  knowledge,  yet  as  to  the 


COI.LRCF.S  IN  AI\!ERTCA.  ST 

earnestness,  steadiness  and  entlinsiasni  in 
tlie  pursnit  of  knowledge,  the  American 
stndents  stand  first.  And  natnre  lias  not 
been  in  a  stingy  mood  when  weighing  out 
their  allotment  of  brains!  Give  them  but 
tlie  opportunities,  and  you  will  soon  see 
wliether  they  need  to  shun  comparison 
with  the  scholars  of  any  other  nation." 

College  government  is  an  important  ques- 
tion. The  college,  as  a  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate community,  has  rules  and  regulations 
based  on  well-established  principles,  which 
aim  to  conserve  the  general  good  of  the 
whole  body  of  students.  The  college  honor 
can  not  be  sustained  unless  there  is  a  rec- 
ognition of  authority  and  responsibility. 

The  college  legislation  and  government 
rests  principally  witli  the  faculty,  overseers 
and  trustees,  who  aim  to  be  liberal,  yet 
firm.  College  sentiment  among  students 
is  often  capricious  and  subject  to  sudden 
revolutions.  Some  of  them  have  strong 
passions,  immature  judgments,  and  im- 
petuous   and   weak    wills,    and    authority 


88  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

must  be  lodged  with  those  who  will 
sacredly  uphold  law  and  exercise  a  firm, 
rigorous  discipline. 

In  the  early  stages  of  college  life  in  this 
country  the  regulations  were  quite  severe. 
In  many  cases  the  college  authorities  did  not 
hesitate  to  inflict  upon  the  students  corporal 
ptmishment  for  certain  offenses.  College 
Presidents  would  sometimes  personally  at- 
tend to  the  flogging  of  students,  resorting 
to  this  punishment  with  great  solemnity. 
Mr.  George  C.  Bush  tells  us  what  occurred 
at  Harvard  College  in  1674:  "On  that 
occasion  the  overseers  of  the  college,  the 
President  and  Fellows,  the  students  who 
chose  to  attend  having  been  called  to- 
gether in  the  library',  the  sentence  was  read 
in  their  presence  and  the  offender  required 
to  kneel.  The  President  then  offered 
prayer,  after  which  *  the  prison  keeper  at 
Cambridge,*  at  a  given  signal  from  him, 
'attended  to  the  performance  of  his  part  of 
the  work.'  The  President  then  closed  the 
solemn  exercise  with  prayer." 


coTJ.F.ar.s  /-V  amertca.  so 

Possibh'  lliis  relic  of  severe  college 
govenmieiit  found  its  example  across  the 
water,  where  it  is  related  that  in  a  bygone 
age  a  Fellow  at  Oxford,  "who  had  been 
proved  guilty  of  an  over-susceptibility  to 
the  charms  of  beauty,  was  condemned,  as  a 
2)cnance,  to  preach  eight  sermons  in  the 
Church  of  Saint  Peter-in-the-East."  In 
the  days  of  President  Dunster,  of  Harvard, 
"no  possible  conduct  escaped  his  eye. 
Class  deportment,  plan  of  studies,  personal 
habits,  daily  life,  private  devotions,  social 
intercourse,  and  civil  privileges,  were  all 
directed." 

The  student  slioidd  feel  that,  in  dis- 
obeying the  rightful  authority  of  the  col- 
lege, he  abridges  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  every  student.  The  college  sentiment 
should  be  so  strong  against  unworthy  con- 
duct that  a  student  would  as  soon  shrink 
from  doing  a  mean  action,  and  having  it 
hnown,  as  any  citizen  outside  the  college 
community.  When  it  is  discovered  that  a 
student  has  mean  and  unworthy  motives 


90  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and   wilful   evil  tendencies,  he  should  be 
summarily  dismissed. 

In  some  colleges  the  students  participate 
in  the  governing  affairs.  This  is  done  by 
having  representatives  chosen  from  each 
college  class,  elected  by  their  fellow- 
students,  who  unitedly  compose  a  College 
Senate,  with  power  to  interpret  the  college 
laws,  and  deal  with  all  questions  relating 
to  the  good  order  and  decorum  of  students. 
The  President  of  the  college  is  chairman, 
and  has  the  power  to  veto  the  decision  of 
the  senate.  There  are  many  favorable 
features  of  this  system.  In  the  first  place, 
it  lessens  tlie  antagonism  sometimes  mani- 
fest between  the  faculty  and  students. 
There  are  no  less  requirements  upon  all 
college  classes  and  duties,  and  it  helps  to 
remove  any  feeling  of  suspicion  and  the 
semblance  of  espionage.  The  students 
feel  that  they  have  been  taken  into  confi- 
dence with  the  college  authorities  and  will 
get  strict,  even-handed  justice  in  college 
discipline.     The  result  is  that  there  comes 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  91 

to  exist  a  more  pleasant  and  friendly  rela- 
tion between  the  professors  and  students. 

Again,  this  system  gives  the  freest  scope 
for  teaching.  The  professor's  time  is  not 
occupied  doing  police  duty  or  sitting  as  a 
juror,  but  is  given  wholly  to  his  work  as 
teacher. 

The  self-responsibility  of  the  student 
also  has  an  educating  influence,  giving  to 
the  worthy  and  right-minded  a  better 
training  for  future  citizenship.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  the  autonomy  of  a 
college  is  an  important  factor  in  shaping 
the  future  liberties  of  our  country.  No 
college,  however,  can  hope  to  uphold  the 
highest  standard  of  conduct  by  trusting  to 
the  force  of  riiles  and  penalties.  The 
spring  of  right  action  is  in  the  heart.  All 
college  authorities  must  rely  principally 
upon  appeals  to  calm  reason  and  an  en- 
lightened conscience,  reinforced  by  re- 
ligious faith  and  feeling. 

The  general  good  order  and  morals  of 
the    students   in    American    colleges    are 


92  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

changing  for  the  better.  In  a  large  pro- 
portion of  our  colleges  only  a  small  per 
cent,  of  the  students  use  intoxicating 
drinks  or  tobacco.  All  reprehensible  con- 
duct must  be  carried  on  so  secretly  as  to 
elude  the  college  authorities.  Those  dis- 
posed to  do  evil  represent  only  a  very^ 
small  proportion  of  the  great  body  of  stu- 
dents, but  these  give  occasion  for  some 
supercilious  and  conceited  correspondent 
of  the  public  press  severely  to  criticise  the 
college  government,  and  to  give  gross  cari- 
catures and  exaggerated  statements  of  the 
mischief  done  by  this  small  percentage  of 
students,  and  then  include  the  entire 
academic  body  in  the  .same  general  cen- 
sure. It  is  generally  believed  by  those 
qualified  to  know  that  the  average  morals 
and  good  conduct  of  the  students  in  col- 
lege are  much  better  than  those  of  the 
same  number  of  young  men  outside  the 
college  community. 

The   chartered   colleges  are  entitled  to 
confer  degrees  as  a  measure  of  honor  the 


COLLEGES   IN  AMERLCA.  93 

college  wishes  to  bestow  on  men  and 
women  of  merit.  This  privilege  has  been 
so  mncli  abused  by  some  colleges  that  a 
little  confusion  arises  as  to  the  true  value 
and  significance  of  the  degrees  conferred. 
In  1890,  there  were  8,290  degrees  conferred 
in  course  or  on  examination,  and  727  hon- 
orary degrees,  by  415  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools. 

In  the  best  American  colleges,  the  stu- 
dent completing  the  classical  course  re- 
ceives the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arls 
(A.  B.) — bas  chevalier^  a  knight  of  low 
degree;  it  signifies  "inception  in  arts."  If 
the  student,  after  taking  his  bachelor's 
degree,  pursues  for  a  few  years  some 
literary  or  scientific  study,  he  may  receive 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  (A.  M.),  mean- 
ing fitness  to  teach,  a  title  which  began  to 
be  conferred  in  the  twelfth  century.  These 
degrees  are  granted  as  a  reward  of  merit, 
based  on  examination  and  general  fitness. 
The  degrees  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  (D.  D.) 
and  Doctor  of  Laws  (LL.  D.)  are  granted 


94  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

as  honorary  degrees  to  men  of  pre-eminent 
ability  or  for  conspicuous  services.  The 
student  who  completes  a  college  course  or 
its  equivalent,  and  follows  it  with  a  pro- 
fessional course  in  a  university,  receives  a 
degree  recognizing  the  fact.  Schools  of 
Theology  confer  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Divinity  (D.  B.)  ;  Schools  of  Law,  Bachelor 
of  Law  (LL.  B.),  and  Schools  of  Medicine, 
Doctor  of  Medicine  (M.  D.) 

A  post-graduate  course  of  study,  looking 
to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  (Ph. 
D.),  has  reference  not  so  much  to  the  pro- 
fessional and  practical  side  of  life  as  to  the 
original  investigation  and  exploration  of  a 
special  subject,  with  no  other  immediate 
aim  than  the  discovery  of  truth  and  a 
philosophical  insight  into  the  same.  The 
student,  before  receiving  the  degree  in  the 
best  universities,  is  required,  at  the  close 
of  his  post-graduate  work,  to  write  a  thesis 
which  would  be  regarded  as  an  original 
contribution  to  the  subject  discussed. 

There  is  no  practical  uniformity  in  the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  95 

scope  and  requirement  of  the  work  for  tins 
degree.  The  Doctor's  degree  should  stand 
in  this  country,  as  it  does  in  Europe,  for 
research,  and  a  general  knowledge  of 
philosophy,  with  ability  to  open  up  orig- 
inal sources  of  information.  The  student 
should  be  a  resident  graduate  for  at  least 
one  year,  and  after  rigorous  examination 
be  required  to  contribute  something  to  the 
advancement  of  knowledge,  and  withal  be 
a  man  of  good  character  and  judgment, 
before  receiving  this  most  desirable  degree 
in  American  and  European  universities. 
With  such  a  uniform  standard,  this  degree 
will  not  likely  depreciate  in  public  esteem, 
but  have,  as  all  degrees  should,  a  uniform 
value.  A  federation  of  colleges  may  help 
to  attain  this  end. 

College  degrees  are  not  essential  to  a 
man's  success  in  life,  but  when  they  are 
obtained  as  a  reward  of  merit  have  a 
certain  social  vahie  which  usually  insures 
a  speedier  entrance  into  any  chosen  field  of 
work. 


96  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Another  characteristic  of  American  col- 
leges is  that  they  are  endowed  either  by 
chnrches,  by  the  state  or  by  individual 
donors.  The  endowment  is  generally  in 
the  form  of  property  or  stocks  yielding  an 
annual  revenue.  It  may  be  a  sum  of  money 
given  to  the  college,  to  be  loaned  and  the 
interest  to  be  permanently  appropriated  to 
the  support  of  professors  or  applied  to  the 
current  expenses.  The  amount  necessary 
to  endow  a  professorship  varies  from 
twenty-five  to  fifty  thousand  dollars.  The 
fund  thus  given  remains  intact,  and  the 
interest  or  revenue  of  it  alone  is  used  to 
carry  out  the  purpose  of  the  donor. 

No  college  of  a  high  grade  can  exist 
without  a  generous  endowment  or  aid  from 
some  source.  Education  in  the  colleges 
and  universities  throughout  the  world  is 
given  almost  as  a  gratuity.  It  is  main- 
tained principally  through  the  benefactions 
of  wealthy  men  who  erect  buildings,  found 
professorships  and  establish  libraries  for 
the  use  of  others. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  97 

The  resources  of  American  colleges  sur- 
pass those  of  any  other  country  in  the 
world.  In  1S90,  tlie  value  of  grounds, 
buildings  and  apparatus  for  378  colleges  in 
the  United  States  was  $77,894,729,  and  the 
productive  fund  of  315  colleges  aggregated 
$74,090,415.  In  Germany,  the  twenty-two 
universities  are  national  property,  and  are 
supported  out  of  the  national  treasury  at  a 
large  annual  expense.  The  annual  in- 
comes of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  En- 
gland aggregate  more  tlian  $3,500,000. 

]Many  of  the  American  colleges  have 
wealthy  foundations.  Harvard  College  has 
in  grounds,  buildings  and  productive  en- 
dowment the  sum  of  $12,000,000,  with  an 
income  in  1892  of  $978,881.92.  Columbia 
College  claims  $13,000,000,  with  an  annual 
income  of  $629,000.  The  estimated  value 
of  the  funds  of  Cornell  College  is  $9,000,000, 
with  an  annual  income  of  more  than  $400,- 
000,  and  Jolius  Hopkins  University  has 
$5,000,000  endowment.  In  1892,  Yale  Col- 
lege had  $4,019,000,  with  an  annual  income 


98  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

of  $520,246.  The  Northwestern  University 
has  nearly  $3,000,000  endowment  and  an 
annual  income  of  $225,000.  Boston  Uni- 
versity has  more  than  $1,500,000  endow- 
ment and  an  annual  income  of  $160,000. 
Chicago  University  is  one  of  our  youngest 
universities,  and  yet  it  has  in  property  and 
endowment  $7,500,000.  These  are  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  415  colleges  and  uni- 
versities in  this  country  whose  aggregate 
wealth  and  income  are  a  source  of  satisfac- 
tion to  all  the  friends  of  higher  education. 
The  munificence  of  the  wealthy  men  of 
this  nation  in  behalf  of  higher  education 
has  excited  the  surprise  and  admiration  of 
the  old  world.  Within  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century  nearly  seventy-five  million  dol- 
lars has  been  given  for  this  cause.  We 
recall  with  satisfaction  some  of  these  dis- 
tinguished donors:  George  Peabody  left 
$6,000,000  of  his  estate  to  the  cause 
of  education ;  Isaac  Rich,  $1,000,000  to 
Boston  University;  Johns  Hopkins,  $3,140,- 
000    to    found   a   imiversity  in   Baltimore 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  99 

which  bears  his  name ;  Asa  Packard  gave 
$3,000,000  to  Lehigh  University;  D.  B. 
Fayerweather  left  a  bequest  of  nearly  $3,- 
000,000  to  various  colleges ;  Cornelius  Van- 
derbilt  gave  $1,000,000  to  the  Vanderbilt 
University ;  John  C.  Green  gave  $1,500,000 
to  Princeton  College  ;  Amasa  Stone,  $600,- 
000  to  Adelbert  College  ;  George  I.  Seney, 
$450,000  to  Wesleyan  University  ;  ]\Iatthew 
Vassar,  $800,000  to  Vassar  College  for 
women ;  John  D.  Rockefeller's  gifts  to  the 
Chicago  University  aggregate  $4,500,000, 
and  Leland  Stanford's  estate  will  yield  from 
$12,000,000  to  $15,000,000  for  the  univer- 
sity that  bears  his  name  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  These  men  and  a  host  of  others 
will  be  remembered  through  succeeding 
generations  for  their  generous  liberality. 
The  wisdom  of  these  noble  benefactions 
commends  itself  to  the  enlightened  judg- 
ment of  all  good  citizens.  We  believe, 
with  President  Schurman,  that  "  the  heart 
behind  American  wealth  is  at  the  bottom 
generous   and  discerning,    and  so  long  as 


100  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

money  can  foster  intelligence,  that  heart 
will  not  suffer  our  civilization  to  become  a 
prey  to  ignorance,  bnitishness  and  stupid 
materialism.  No  one  knows  better  than 
the  millionaire  that  man  lives  not  by  bread 
alone."  The  colleges  are  not  founded  to 
make  money  but  to  benefit  the  public  by 
training  and  fitting  men  for  the  highest 
service.  The  majority  of  the  students  in 
American  colleges  are  of  limited  means. 
If  it  were  possible  to  sustain  a  first-class 
college  by  means  of  the  income  from  stu- 
dents, the  tuition  would  be  so  high  as  to 
limit  the  great  advantage  of  a  higher  edu- 
cation to  a  few  children  of  rich  men.  The 
annual  cost  of  each  undergraduate  to  the 
University  at  Oxford  is  $70x3,  at  Cambridge 
$600,  and  at  Harvard  $300.  If  the  actual 
expenses  of  running  a  college  of  high  grade 
were  divided  proportionately  among  the 
students,  they  would  have  to  pay  three  or 
four  times  the  amount  they  now  do  for 
tuition.  It  is  important  that  these  educa- 
tional   advantages    and    incentives    come 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  101 

within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  youth  of 
the  Republic,  in  order  that  they  may  be 
productive  of  the  noblest  manhood  and 
womanhood. 

Time  and  experience  confirm  the  claim 
that  the  wisest  and  most  permanent  use  of 
money  is  to  help  endow  a  college.  Large 
wealth  imposes  obligations  to  make  the 
best  and  most  permanent  use  of  it.  Every 
man  of  means  ought  to  be  a  patron  of 
learning,  because  it  yields  the  most  satis- 
factory returns,  "  What  better  gift  can  we 
offer  the  Republic,"  says  Cicero,  "  than  to 
teach  and  instruct  the  youth."  Wendell 
Phillips  says  that  "  education  is  the  only 
interest  worthy  deep,  controlling  anxiety  of 
thoughtful  men,"  and  President  Oilman 
makes  an  equally  forcible  statement  when 
he  says  that  "to  be  concerned  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  university  is  one  of  the 
noblest  and  most  important  tasks  ever  im- 
posed on  a  community  or  on  a  set  of  men." 

Many  of  our  denominational  colleges  are 
parsimoniously  sustained.     If  their  constit- 


102  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

uency,  both  rich  and  poor,  would  become 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Colonial 
fathers,  and  arouse  themselves  to  give  lib- 
erally, their  power  and  influence  would  be 
multiplied  a  hundred  fold.  "  Let  it  not  be 
forgotten,"  says  President  Thwing,  "  that 
if  the  college  and  university  have  large 
need  of  the  wealth  of  the  community,  this 
wealth  has  yet  a  larger  need  of  the  college 
and  university.  Without  the  aid  of  the 
higher  education  in  the  past,  much  of  the 
wealth  could  not  have  been  created  ;  and 
without  the  higher  education  of  the  present, 
wealth  would  now  become  sordid;  gold- 
dust  is  no  less  dust  because  it  is  golden. 
The  rich  man  needs  the  college  as  his  ben- 
eficiary to  help  him  to  be  a  noble  man 
quite  as  much  as  the  college  needs  his  ben- 
efactions to  help  it  make  noble  men.  A 
college  in  poverty  can  make  men ;  a  rich 
man  (or  a  poor  man,  indeed,)  cannot  hoard 
in  meanness  without  degradation  of  man- 
hood." The  colleges  arc  the  agencies  to 
help  call  out  the    constructive   talent   of 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  103 

the  nation.  They  open  the  pathway  of 
opportunity  to  every  young  man  and 
woman  who  desires  to  do  the  most  for  him- 
self and  humanity.  Each  one  may  link 
himself  through  his  means  and  prayers  to 
these  powerful  agencies  for  good. 


IV. 

THE    FUNCTIONS    OF    THK    AMERICAN 

COIJ.KOK — A  SYMMETRICAL 

DEVELOPMENT. 

The  function  of  tlie  American  college  is 
to  train  and  develop  all  the  human  powers 
and  faculties  and  help  the  student  to  attain 
a  complete  individuality.  The  broadest 
educational  theory  estimates  the  worth  of 
all  the  human  powers  and  has  the  highest 
notion  of  personality,  the  development  of 
which  demands  the  impact  of  physical, 
intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  forces. 
A  rounded  human  development  provides 
for  the  fullest  and  freest  exercise  of  all 
the  powers  of  being.  '*  Culture, "  says 
Matthew  Arnold,  "is  a  harmonious  expan- 
sion of  all  the  powers  which  make  the 
beauty  and   worth  of  human  nature,  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  105 

is  not  consistent  with  the  over-develop- 
ment of  any  one  power  at  the  expense  of 
the  rest." 

Man  is  a  unit,  but  inasmuch  as  God  has 
endowed  him  with  various  capacities,  his 
highest  glory  should  be  to  develop  them. 
The  only  limit  to  the  college  student  is  his 
native  abilities  and  aptitudes,  modified  b)- 
the  parental  training,  various  social  influ- 
ences, and  the  preliminary  discipline  in 
the  public  schools.  The  college  that  re- 
ceives the  students,  with  their  different 
aims  and  predilections  and  acquirements, 
and  leads  them  to  appreciate  the  greater 
possibilities  of  their  natures,  and  arouses 
and  encourages  them  to  strive  for  their 
fullest  development,  is  worthy  of  confi- 
dence and  support. 

A  symmetrically  developed  manhood 
or  womanhood  implies  the  trainvig  of  ilic 
mind  to  think  accurately  and  systematic- 
ally. The  tried  and  historic  conception  of 
education  is  expressed  in  the  Latin  word, 
educare:  to  lead  out.     It  is  to  draw  out  of 


106  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

the  living  soul,  by  the  aid  of  books,  appli- 
ances, and  instructors,  all  its  latent  capaci- 
ties, to  help  in  the  formation  of  correct 
intellectual  habits,  and  pre-eminently  to 
form  character,  and  thus  to  enrich  and 
broaden  the  whole  range  of  life.  The  pur- 
pose of  a  liberal  education  is  not  to  cram 
the  mind  with  facts  and  principles,  but  "  to 
build  up  and  build  out  the  mind  "  by  the 
natural  process  of  growth,  so  that  all 
knowledge  from  without  will  be  assimi- 
lated by  a  living  mental  organism.  The 
important  work  of  the  college  is  to  develop 
intellectual  power.  It  is  to  aid  in  giving 
such  a  directive  power  of  mind  as  will 
enable  the  student,  by  a  fixed  determina- 
tion, to  recall  facts,  apply  principles,  and 
perform  acts  as  if  they  were  spontaneous. 
It  is  so  to  train  the  judgment  and  reason- 
ing faculties  of  the  student  that  in  the 
end  he  will  have  acquired  power  to  do 
earnest  intellectual  work. 

The   direct   aim   of    the    instruction    in 
college  is  to  give    the   student   access   to 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  107 

vital  and  formative  knowledge  by  studying 
man  and  his  works,  and  nature  and  lier 
works.  He  is  thus  led  to  know  himself 
and  to  know  the  world,  and  the  laws  which 
govern  nature,  and  man  as  a  part  of 
nature.  He  comes  to  see  things  as  they 
are  and  to  understand  the  laws  of  things, 
and  thus  he  thinks  and  acts  on  more  per- 
fect knowledge.  If  the  student  is  to  be 
trained  to  independent  thought  and  action, 
he  must  have  a  sounder  basis  of  knowledge 
than  the  teachings  of  those  whose  ideas 
and  opinions  are  shaped  by  current, 
ephemeral  literature.  The  majority  of  men 
act  on  too  imperfect  knowledge,  because 
they  will  not  take  the  time  and  exercise  the 
patience  to  study  the  facts  and  principles  re- 
lating to  any  given  subject,  and  to  do  their 
own  thinking.  Gcethe  says:  "To  act  is 
easy,  to  think  is  hard."  The  remedy  is 
found  in  the  college  courses  of  study  which 
involve  the  study  of  ourselves  through 
psychology,  logic,  and  mental,  moral,  polit- 
ical and  social  philosophy,  and  the  study  of 


108  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

nature  through  the  sciences  and  the  laws 
of  the  world  about  us. 

Another  method,  aside  from  the  nature 
and  scope  of  the  studies  pursued,  to  attain 
the  end,  is  through  the  strong  personality 
of  the  college  professor.  Alexander  the 
Great  said :  "  Philip  gave  me  life,  Aristotle 
taught  me  how  to  live  well,"  and  Emer- 
son's judgment  was  that  "it  is  little  matter 
what  you  learn;  the  question  is,  with 
whom  you  learn."  It  is  within  the  power 
of  the  college  professor  to  help  enlighten 
the  understanding,  strengthen  and  guide 
the  intuitions  and  reasoning  faculties,  and 
to  awaken  within  the  student  a  conscious- 
ness of  his  new  powers  and  capacities,  and 
incite  him  to  mental  activity.  The  highest 
scholastic  training  demands  that  the  pro- 
fessor studiously  avoid  all  those  methods  of 
instruction  which  tend  to  mechanical 
habits  of  thought,  and  which  check  the 
mind's  spontaneity  of  growth  and  repress 
the  individuality  so  essential  to  true 
scholarship. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  109 

Incidental  to  intellectual  culture  m  col- 
lege is  the  ability  to  find  promptly  the 
information  we  want.  ''Next  to  knowing 
a  thing,"  says  Dr.  Johnson,  "is  to  know 
where  to  find  it."  No  student  can  become 
a  walking  encyclopaedia,  but  he  should 
learn  while  in  college  how  to  avail  himself 
advantageously  of  reference  books,  libraries 
and  other  sources  of  information. 

A  college  education  likewise  implies  the 
ability  to  express  one's  ideas  in  a  clear, 
appropriate  style.  The  student  should  be 
able  to  tell  what  he  knows.  This  clearness 
of  thought  and  precision  of  expression  is 
best  acquired  in  the  class  room,  in  the  lit- 
erary societies,  and  in  the  classes  devoted 
especially  to  the  study  of  expression. 

The  intellectual  aim  of  a  college  should 
be  not  only  to  awaken  and  develop  inde- 
pendent thinking  ])o\ver  as  an  abiding 
impulse  which  will  prompt  to  elTective 
intellectual  work,  but  withal  the  will,  the 
imagination,  and  omoLivo  ualute  sliould  be 
so   trained   that    the    student  will    have  a 


110  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

mental  taste  and  moral  appreciation  for 
the  best  and  noblest  tlionght.  Mental 
discipline  and  the  dull  routine  of  study 
will  become  cold  and  insipid  unless  the 
student  is  inducted  into  those  fields  of 
science  and  literature  where  he  will  find 
the  richest  sources  of  refined  and  elevating 
pleasures,  and  through  them  be  incited  to 
noble  action.  It  is  on  these  lines  of  study 
that  the  student  acquires  that  spirit  of 
study  which  becomes  spontaneous,  attract- 
ive, and  joyous.  He  loves  culture  for 
culture's  sake,  and  does  not  abandon  its 
acquisition  on  leaving  college. 

A  symmetrically  developed  manhood 
or  womanhood  involves  physical  culture. 
The  ascetic  idea  of  college  life  no  longer 
prevails.  The  body,  as  well  as  the  mind, 
is  trained.  The  value  to  a  student  of  good 
health  and  an  alert  and  vigorous  body  can- 
not be  overestimated.  Educators  are  com- 
ing to  realize  more  fully  than  in  the  past 
that  the  physical  and  ])sychical  factors  of 
life  are  inseparable.     The  body  and  mind 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  Ill 

are  mutually  related  and  affected.  System- 
atic exercise  stimulates  quickness  of  mental 
processes  and  promotes  brain  power. 

The  leading  American  colleges  are  con- 
ducted on  better  physiological  and  hygienic 
principles  than  in  the  past.  The  student, 
on  entering  college,  is  subject  to  a  careful 
physical  examination  by  a  competent  phy- 
sician, and  a  course  of  systematic  physical 
training  is  prescribed.  Any  organic  defect 
or  incipient  disease  is  discovered,  and,  if 
possible,  corrected.  Physical  training  has 
become  an  integral  part  of  a  good  college 
course.  Exercise  is  largely  compulsory, 
because  studious  and  ambitious  students 
are  likely  to  sacrifice  physical  for  intel- 
lectual training. 

A  well-equipped  gymnasium  is  essential 
for  the  most  thorough  physical  culture. 
Bath-rooms,  with  facilities  for  plunge  and 
shower  baths,  are  an  important  adjunct  in 
promoting  that  healthy  condition  of  the 
skin  which  follows  from  frequent  bathing. 
An  athletic  field  for  outdoor  sports  is,  like- 


112  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

wise,  a  valuable  accessory  to  develop  a 
lithe  and  active  body. 

The  master  of  the  gj^mnasiuin  is  gener- 
ally a  vigorous  and  enthusiastic  instnictor, 
who  is  able  to  conduct  skillfully  daily 
gymnastic  class  work,  and  relieve  monot- 
ony and  evoke  interest  by  introducing  a 
variety  of  exercises  for  the  different  college 
classes.  He  is  also  the  hygienic  adviser  in 
all  matters  relating  to  study  and  recreation. 
The  students  are  taught  that  regular  exer- 
cise, sufficient  sleep,  personal  cleanliness, 
and  proper  diet  will  correct  most  of  the 
so-called  pernicious  effects  of  over-study. 

Outdoor  sports,  under  proper  restric- 
tions, promote  health  and  foster  mental 
qualities,  I'^oot-ball  and  base-ball  have 
gained  an  undue  prominence  in  some  col- 
leges. It  is  questionable  whether  they  are 
the  most  desirable  forms  of  exercise  for 
physical  development,  since  only  a  very 
small  portion  of  the  students  at  any  one 
time  can  engage  in  them. 

The    evil     features    of    inter-collegiate 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  113 

games,  especially  as  practiced,  offset  their 
advantages.  The  undue  excitement  and 
spirit  of  rivalry  fostered  is  foreign  to  the 
true  idea  of  an  earnest  student  life.  The 
college  is  no  monastery  to  make  the  stu- 
dent a  recluse,  but  it  should  be  a  place  of 
solitude,  a  modern  cloister,  where  the  stu- 
dent may  be  kept  in  partial  isolation  and 
away  from  the  turbulent  stream  of  public 
life  and  distracting  social  influences.  The 
student  may  keep  in  the  midst  of  the  cur- 
rent of  actual  modern  thought  and  life 
without  sacrificing  the  quiet  seclusion 
which  is  an  essential  requirement  for  the 
best  scholarship. 

These  inter-collegiate  games  have  been 
attended  with  temptations  perilous  to  char- 
acter. A])undant  testimony  is  not  wanting 
to  show  that  their  tendency  has  been 
toward  rowdyism,  gambling,  debauchery, 
and  other  disgraceful  conduct.  Some  of 
the  games  scarcely  rise  above  the  brutality 
of  the  prize  figlit.  They  have  no  elevat- 
ing   tendency,    and     no    apology    can    be 


114  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

made  for  their  roughness  and  bad  moral 
effects. 

The  fine  natural  instincts  of  the  majority 
of  American  people  are  repelled  at  such 
physical  prowess.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
introduce  the  element  of  pugilism  in  order 
to  give  vent  to  the  superabundance  of 
youthful  animal  spirits. 

The  abuse  of  these  outdoor  sports  should 
not  make  us  blind  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  a  legitimate  use.  It  is  wiser  to  con- 
trol and  direct  them  than  to  curb  the 
exuberance  of  good  feeling  which  they  call 
forth,  and  which  might  find  expression  in 
less  appropriate  channels.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  all  physical  training  is 
a  failure  unless  the  aim  is  to  maintain  and 
develop  health,  to  make  the  student  sym- 
metrical, strong,  graceful  and  better  fitted 
for  the-duties  of  living. 

A  symmetrical  development  involves, 
likewise,  the  cultivation  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  nature. 

The  Christian  religion  affords  the  broad- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  115 

est  educational  basis,  because  it  presents 
the  most  exalted  notion  of  personality  and 
its  development.  It  takes  account  of  the 
deepest  facts  of  our  nature,  and  teaches 
philosophical  principles  that  are  true  for 
all  created  intelligences.  Hence  it  is  that 
Christianity  is  essential  to  the  best  educa- 
tional system.  It  precedes  and  governs 
true  education.  A  narrow  and  false  con- 
ception of  man  leads  to  building  only  one 
side  of  his  nature.  Tlie  will,  the  con- 
science, the  emotional  and  spiritual  natures 
demand  a  share  in  the  broadest  culture. 
We  cannot  divide  tiiese  essential  elements 
against  themselves.  The  religious  senti- 
ment is  so  interwoven  with  our  being  that 
it  cannot  be  eliminated  or  dethroned.  It 
takes  no  subordinate  place,  because  it  is 
supreme.  There  is  no  true  theory  of  life 
without  the  spiritual  element.  All  tlicories 
of  education  and  principles  of  action  that  do 
not  recognize  the  relations  of  the  human 
sold  to  the  supernatural  are  out  of  harmony 
with  the  laws  ooverninc:  human  life. 


116  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

These  truths  have  been  impressed  on  the 
noblest  minds.  "The  greatest  thought," 
said  Daniel  Webster,  "that  ever  entered 
my  mind,  is  the  thought  of  my  personal 
accountability  to  God."  And  Channing 
says  that  "man's  relation  to  God  is  the 
great  quickening  truth,  throwing  all  other 
truths  into  insignificance,  and  a  truth 
which,  however  obscured  and  paralyzed  by 
the  many  errors  which  ignorance  and  fraud 
have  hitherto  linked  with  it,  has  ever  been 
a  chief  spring  of  human  improvement. 
We  look  to  it  as  the  true  life  of  the 
intellect.  No  man  can  be  just  to  himself, 
can  comprehend  his  own  existence,  can 
put  forth  all  his  powers  with  an  heroic 
confidence,  can  deserve  to  be  the  guide  and 
inspirer  of  other  minds,  till  he  has  risen  to 
communion  with  the  Supreme  Mind;  till 
he  feels  his  filial  connection  with  the  Uni- 
versal Parent;  till  he  regards  himself  as 
the  recipient  and  minister  of  the  Infinite 
Spirit ;  till  he  feels  his  consecration  to  the 
ends  which  religion  unfolds ;   till  he  rises 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  117 

above  liunian  opinion,  and  is  moved  by  a 
higher  impnlse  than  fame." 

The  Christian  religion  is  in  harmony 
with  intellectnal  activity,  becanse  it  favors 
application  to  stndy,  and  enjoins  the  dnty 
of  seeking  truth,  as  well  as  awakens  and 
intensifies  the  love  of  the  good  and  beauti- 
ful. In  fact,  the  human  intellect  owes  its 
greatest  triumphs  to  Christianity.  From 
the  beginning,  the  Christian  religion  has 
assimilated  and  employed  human  learning, 
and  has  become  a  great  formative  force  in 
modern  intellectual  movements.  It  favors 
a  broad  catholic  spirit,  and  is  the  counter- 
poise and  remedy  of  a  narrovv^  range  of  in- 
tellectual activity.  History  teaches  that  it 
has  been  a  strong  incentive  in  the  search 
after  truth,  and  the  chief  factor  in  training 
the  race  to  a  higher  civilized  life.  The 
changes  in  the  progress  in  modern  civiliza- 
tion are  stimulated  and  guided  by  Christian 
knowledge.  The  whole  trend  of  modern 
thought  and  instruction  in  the  higher 
intellectual   circles   is   to   apply   Christian 


118  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

principles  to  the  problems  of  life.  In  every 
age  it  has  stimulated  and  invigorated  the 
human  mind.  It  has  introduced  nobler 
and  better  ideas  of  life,  given  impetus  to 
self-development,  and  has  produced  the 
highest  types  of  manhood  and  of  woman- 
hood. The  inspiration  and  encouragement 
in  advancing  general  intelligence  and 
founding  the  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
ing is  principally  due  to  the  Christian 
religion. 

"From  the  days  of  the  Apologists  on- 
wards," says  Prof.  John  De  Witt,  "learn- 
ing has  always  advanced  under  the  foster- 
ing care  of  our  religion.  In  the  schools  of 
Antioch  and  of  Alexandria,  in  Carthage 
and  Hippo,  in  the  old  Rome  on  the  Tiber, 
and  in  the  new  Rome  on  the  Bosphorus, 
throughout  the  period  of  the  ancient 
church,  religion  is  the  great  inspiration  of 
intellectual  labor.  How  true  this  is  of  the 
Middle  Age  I  need  not  stop  to  say. 
Religion  in  Anselm  assimilates  the  phi- 
losophy of  Plato.     In  the  Anglican  doctor 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  119 

it  employs  the  dialectic  and  metaphysics 
of  Aristotle.     And  the  true  father  of  the 
inductive  philosophy,  who  anticipated  the 
Organon  and  the  very  Idola  of  his  great 
namesake,  is  Roger  Bacon,  the  Franciscan 
brother.     It   was    to    this   wonderful   and 
unique  power  of  Christianity  to  assimilate 
and  employ  all  the  triumphs  of  the  human 
intellect,  that   the   Western  World   is   in- 
debted for  the  universities  by  which,  most 
of  all,  learning  was  increased  and  trans-    | 
mitted    from     generation     to    generation,     j 
Bologna  and  Naples,  the  school  of  Egbert 
at  York,  the  schools  of  Charlemagne  in  the    • 
New   Christian    Empire,    with   Alcuin    as    [ 
minister  of  education ;  the  later  universi-     \ 
ties,  with  their  tens  of  thousands  of  eager      1 
students — Paris,    Cologne,    and    Oxford — 
sprang   into   being  obedient,  indeed,  to  a 
thirst    for    knowledge,    but    a    thirst    for 
knowledge  which,  in  turn,  owed  its  exist- 
ence and  intensity  to  the  unique  fact  that 
Christianity    alone    among    religions    can 
assimilate   and   employ   all   the   truths   of 


120  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

human  philosophy,  of  science,  and  of  lit- 
erature." 

The  importance  of  promoting  religious 
culture  in  our  colleges  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Dr.  Thomas  Arnold  has  spoken 
words  that  should  be  preserved  in  letters  of 
gold.  "Consider,"  he  says,  "what  a  re- 
ligious education,  in  the  true  sense  of  the 
word,  is:  It  is  no  other  than  a  training 
our  children  to  life  eternal ;  no  other  than 
the  making  them  know  and  love  God, 
know  and  abhor  evil;  no  other  than  the 
fashioning  all  the  parts  of  our  nature  for 
the  very  ends  which  God  designed  for 
them ;  the  teaching  our  understandings  to 
know  the  highest  truth ;  the  teaching  our 
afiections  to  love  the  highest  good ! "  One 
of  the  greatest  teachers,  Mark  Hopkins,  on 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  connection 
with  Williams  College,  said :  "  Christianity 
is  the  greatest  civilizing,  molding,  uplifting 
power  on  this  globe,  and  it  is  a  sad  defect 
in  any  institution  of  higher  learning  if  it 
does  not  bring  those  under  its  care  into 


COLLEGES  AV  AMERICA.  121 

the  closest  possible  relation  to  it."  The 
profound  French  philosopher,  Victor 
Cousin,  declares  that  "any  system  of 
school  training  which  sharpens  and 
strengthens  the  intellectual  powers  with- 
out supplying  moral  culture  and  religious 
principle  is  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing." 
And  President  I\I.  E.  Gates  says:  "In 
place  of  the  fermenting  despair  of  nihilism, 
the  reckless  immoralities  of  atheism,  and 
tlie  suicidal  negations  of  agnosticism  which 
have  cursed  liberally-educated  Europe,  if 
we  are  to  have  here  in  America  an  influ- 
ence strong,  binding  and  bcncficient  in  our 
social  system,  as  the  result  of  collegiate 
education,  it  must  be,  it  can  be  only  by 
retaining  in  that  system  a  clear  faith  in 
Trod,  and  by  making  prominent,  as  the 
highest  aim  of  life,  the  service  of  God  in 
serving  the  best  interests  of  one's  fellow- 
men." 

The  goal  of  all  education  is  fulness  of 
stature  of  men  and  women  in  Christ.  Art 
and  science  are  a  vain  show  without  this 


122  COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA. 

aim.  A  man  may  have  a  brain  as  keen  as 
a  Damascus  scimiter,  and  yet  he  is  want- 
ing without  piety.  This  moral  and  relig- 
ious equipment  is  necessary'  for  right 
conduct  which,  Matthew  Arnold  says,  is 
three-fourths  of  life.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  student  that  is  touched  and 
saturated  with  the  religious  life  will  be 
under  the  strongest  motives  and  attain  the 
highest  culture  and  efficiency  in  life.  A 
pure  heart  and  a  clear  brain  are  closely 
related.  "Our  education  will  never  be 
perfect  unless,  like  the  ancient  temples,  it 
is  lighted  from  above."  Martin  Luther 
said :  "  To  have  j)rayed  well  is  to  have 
studied  well,"  which  accords  with  the  idea 
of  the  best  scholars  in  former  days  at  Cam- 
bridge :     Bene  orasse  est  bene  studisse. 

The  Christian  spirit  is  eminently  favor- 
able to  culture  and  to  the  promotion  of 
literary  productivity.  It  helps  to  make 
brilliant  and  earnest  teachers,  and  lends 
zest  to  professional  ambition.  "Other 
things    being   equal,"   says   Noah    Porter, 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  123 

"that  institution  of  learning  wliicli  is 
earnestly  religious  is  certain  to  make  the 
largest  and  most  valuable  achievements  in 
science  and  learning,  as  well  as  in  literary 
tastes  and  capacities." 

President  Gates  forcibly  expresses  the 
thought  in  these  words:  "Man  is  not,  and 
was  not  meant  to  be,  pure  disembodied  in- 
tellect. True  philosophy,  as  well  as  com- 
mon sense,  teaches  that  the  heart  and  the 
will  have  their  rightful  domain  in  every 
man's  life.  If  the  understanding  becomes 
arrogant  and  spurns  the  aid  of  the  other 
powers  of  the  mind,  not  only  does  the  man 
become  an  incomplete  man,  but  his  intel- 
lect itself  inevitably  loses  poise  and  clear- 
ness. The  man  ceases  to  be  a  man,  and 
becomes  a  calculating  machine,  and  his 
intellect  becomes  subject  to  those  sudden 
reversals  of  legitimate  processes  and  re- 
sults which  the  law  of  construction  for  cal- 
culating machines  renders  inevitable  in 
them,  but  from  which  life  saves  the  living 
man,  the  feeling,  worshiping  soul." 


124  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

There   is   nothing    more    important    to 

eqnip  the  complete  scholar  and  gentleman 

than   the   Christian   religion.     Tennyson's 

poetic  interpretation  of  this  truth  is  thus 

beautifully  expressed : 

"Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell, 
That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 
May  make  one  music,  as  before, 
But  vaster." 

The  methods  of  proynoting  religions  life 
in  college  are  widely  varied.  One  of  the 
most  effective  means  is  the  positive  Chris- 
tian faith  and  the  personal  religious  influ- 
ence of  the  college  professors.  The  student 
enters  college  at  a  vital  and  perilous  period 
of  life.  The  judgment  is  often  immature 
and  the  life  principles  unsettled.  In  this 
speculative  period  the  student  may  be 
blindly  endeavoring  to  adjust  his  faith  to 
his  reason.  Especially  at  this  time  he 
needs  professors  of  superior  reason, 
strength  of  faith  and  spiritual  discernment 
to  unveil  the  divine  mysteries  and  aid  in 
dispelling  doubt.     Ex-President  vSeelye,  of 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  125 

Amherst,  once  said:  "We  should  no  more 
think  of  appointing  to  a  post  of  instruction 
here  an  irreligious  man  than  we  should  an 
immoral  man,  or  one  ignorant  of  the  topics 
he  would  have  to  teach."  It  is  certainly 
no  narrow  bigotry  that  leads  the  Christian 
public  to  demand  that  the  colleges  select 
professors  loyal  to  the  truth  and  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  United  with  their  scientific 
culture  and  professional  ability  as  teachers, 
they  should  embody  Christian  earnestness 
and  purity  of  life,  and  aim  to  send  out 
students  with  a  positive  and  rational 
faith. 

The  parent  who  realizes  that  the  moral 
character  of  his  children  will  be  fixed,  in  a 
large  measure,  while  in  college,  believes 
that  it  would  be  moral  suicide  to  permit 
them  to  come  under  the  influence  of  a 
professor  whose  religious  indifTerence,  or 
unfavorable  remarks  about  Cliristiatiit}', 
might  infuse  the  poison  of  skepticism, 
doubt,  or  indifference,  and  perhaps  un- 
settle their  early  religious  con.victions,  au.d 


126  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

"send  them  forth  confused  and  adrift  on 
the  endless  sea  of  conflicting  notions." 

The  courses  of  study  in  college  should 
be  arranged  so  as  to  favor  the  study  of  the 
essential  facts  and  truths  of  the  Christian 
religion,  and  through  them  promote  prac- 
tical piety.  There  is  no  valid  reason  why 
the  Christian  religion,  which  is  the  chief 
energy  and  force  in  all  intellectual  culture, 
should  not  be  distinctly  and  permanently 
recognized  in  the  college  curriculum.  The 
well-established  and  accepted  facts  of  the 
Christian  religion  should  be  gathered  and 
studied  with  as  much  painstaking  care, 
freedom  of  spirit,  and  loyalty  to  truth 
as  the  scientist  studies  his  facts  and  con- 
structs his  theories.  This  method  implies 
that  the  teacher  and  pupil  hold  in  abey- 
ance all  those  probable  theories,  specula- 
tions, and  conjectures  which  are  not 
established,  as  irrelevant  to  the  work  in 
hand.  When  this  scientific  spirit  is  more 
effectively  introduced  into  the  study  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  our  colleges,  it  will 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  127 

prepare  the  way  for  the  restatement  of 
doctrine  so  as  to  commend  it  with  increas- 
ing force  to  every  intelligent  student. 
Christian  truth  is  capable  of  being  built  up 
into  a  system  as  scientific  as  any  other. 
The  professor,  in  leading  the  earnest  stu- 
dent in  search  of  spiritual  truth,  will  exer- 
cise tolerance  and  tact,  so  that  he  will  not 
awaken  suspicions  of  being  actuated  by  a 
narrow  bigotry,  or  appear  as  a  lover  of 
dogmatic  teachings. 

Again,  it  is  better  to  select  text-books 
that  have  been  written  by  capable  men 
who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  Christian 
religion.  The  student  with  an  immature 
mind,  who  seeks  to  build  his  faith  and 
theories  of  life  on  the  teachings  of  those 
whose  predilections  are  away  from  Chris- 
tianity, will  find  it  fatal  to  his  lofty  ideals 
and  aspirations,  while  instruction  based  on 
Christian  theism  tends  to  lift  the  mind  up- 
ward, and  to  foster  a  hopeful  and  earnest 
moral  and  intellectual  life. 

We  grant  that  Christian   character  can 


128  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

only  be  incidentally  produced  through  the 
subjects  studied.  The  same  study  may  be 
taught  in  different  ways,  and  with  entirely 
different  results.  The  intellectual  pro- 
cesses involved  in  study  do  not  necessarily 
exert  a  spiritual  influence.  The  aim  and 
spirit  of  the  professor  and  student  will 
determine  whether  the  study  pursued  shall 
contribute  to  the  cultivation  of  greater 
reverence  and  exaltation  of  the  soul.  The 
charm  of  scientific  study  may  so  occupy 
the  student's  attention  as  to  exclude  all 
thoughts  of  the  spiritual  and  eternal,  or  he 
may  "look  through  nature  up  to  nature's 
God."  The  student  may  be  so  absorbed 
with  the  human  events  and  material  condi- 
tions of  history  as  to  overlook  the  light  of 
God's  presence  and  guiding  hand  in  it  all. 
To  be  liberally  educated  in  Christian 
America,  one  should  have  a  knowledge  of 
the  Knglish  Bible.  It  is  the  fountain  and 
conservator  of  pure  Knglish  and  the  store- 
house of  the  most  inspiring  thought.  Its 
classic  beauty  and  lofty  speculations  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  129 

sublime  morality  are  essential  to  a  liberal 
education.  "Froude  calls  the  Bible  the 
best  of  all  literatures.  Daniel  Webster 
read  the  Bible  through  every  year  for  its 
effect  upon  his  mind.  Charles  Sumner 
kept  the  Bible  at  his  elbow  on  his  desk, 
and  could  find  any  passage  without  a  con- 
cordance. Great  men  have  found  the  Bible 
a  great  inspiration.  But  not  this  alone — as 
a  great  and  inspiring  literature, — but  as  a 
source  of  spiritual  life  and  power,  the  Bible 
is  the  basis  of  true  collegiate  growth." 

The  study  of  the  English  Bible  in  col- 
leges is  important  in  developing  the  will 
and  the  conscience,  and  in  evoking  relig- 
ious feelings  which  have  a  practical  influ- 
ence on  conduct.  It  certainly  imj^arts  a 
vigorous  character  to  education,  and  brings 
men  face  to  face  with  the  facts  of  sin  and 
its  remedy.  The  presence  of  Christianit\' 
in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  student  is 
corrective  of  selfishness  and  other  vices 
which  enslave  the  intellect  and  render  life 
a  disastrous  failure. 


130  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

It  is  encouraging  to  note  that  the  study 
of  the  Bible  is  finding  a  place  in  the 
American  college  curriculum  on  a  level 
with  other  studies,  and  time  is  allotted  to 
attain  a  certain  intellectual  mastery  of  it. 
The  active  class  instruction  is  as  exacting 
and  exhausting  as  any  part  of  the  college 
course.  The  student  is  led  to  trace  the 
historic  movements  and  to  perceive  the 
organic  character,  the  literary  forms  and 
personal  factors  in  its  composition.  The 
inductive  method  adopted  develops  orig- 
inal and  independent  students  of  the  Word. 
The  intellectual,  devotional,  and  practical 
ends  attained  by  this  study  are  a  powerful 
factor  in  upholding  and  maintaining  the 
moral  and  spiritual  character  of  the  stu- 
dents. 

Another  method  is  that  of  religious 
worship.  Students  living  in  a  community 
with  a  separate  intellectual  and  social  life 
should  be  required  to  meet  daily  for  relig- 
ious worship  and  instruction.  The  sacred 
moments   spent  in  the  college  chapel  by 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  131 

the  whole  college  community  are  an  ap- 
propriate recognition  of  the  worth  and 
power  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  do 
something  to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  and 
aspirations  of  the  human  soul.  The  daily 
gathering  of  the  academic  body  to  listen 
to  a  brief  but  suggestive  exposition  of 
scripture,  and  to  unite  in  praise  and 
prayer,  cultivates  reverence  and  devotion 
in  the  student,  and  will  be  regarded  by 
many  of  them  in  after  years  as  among  the 
most  delightful  experiences  in  college  life. 
If  the  religious  services  are  not  made  per- 
functory, but  attractive  and  inspiring,  in 
college,  the  students  may  pass  to  the  uni- 
versity in  their  maturer  years  with  devo- 
tional habits,  and,  likely,  to  avail  them- 
selves of  its  voluntary  system  of  daily 
religious  exercises. 

The  colleges  should  ever  keep  in  viev/ 
the  original  aim  of  the  founders  to  make 
them  centers  of  evangelical  power.  Piety, 
however,  should  not  be  a  substitute  for 
honest  scholarly  work.    They  should  never 


182  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

permit  their  enthusiasm  for  an  intellectual 
training  and  the  growth  of  the  sciences  to 
obscure  or  conceal  Him  who  is  the  Light 
and  Life  of  all  men.  Their  immediate  and 
primary  aim  should  be  to  promote  intel- 
lectual culture,  but  this  in  nowise  involves 
a  departure  from  the  spirit  of  the  fore- 
fathers who  made  them  agencies  for  de- 
fending and  propagating  the  gospel,  and 
for  leading  the  youth  to  remember  that 
"the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom." 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  function  of 
the  college  is  to  unfold  the  intellectual, 
physical,  moral,  and  spiritual  life  of  the 
young  people,  and  especially  to  form  char- 
acter that  shall  be  fully  equipped  for  carry- 
ing out  the  divine  purpose  of  life. 

THK  ADVANCKMKNT  OF   KNOWLEDGK. 

Another  function  of  the  American  col- 
lege is  to  extend  the  objective  field  of 
knowledge.  The  enlarged  range  of  knowl- 
edge in  our  day  is  owing  principally  to  the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  \\\\\ 

clear  thinking  and  earnest,  original,  pro- 
ductive work  done  by  college  professors 
and  students.  They  have  done  more  to 
extend  the  empire  of  thought  than  an}' 
other  class  of  intellectual  workers.  The 
collere    is    the    home    of    the    arts    and 

o 

sciences,  and  it  exists  to  teach  and  pro- 
mote them.  Professors  should  have  the 
ability  and  the  time,  more  and  more,  to 
make  investigations,  to  extend  the  domain 
of  truth,  and  to  give  philosophical  and 
scientific  guidance  to  the  nation. 

The  university  proper,  as  now  being 
developed,  regards  as  its  special  function 
the  training  of  men  for  research  and  profes- 
sional work.  Its  ample  facilities  and  its 
methods  of  work  give  advanced  students  rare 
privileges  in  any  department  of  research. 

"The  modern  university,"  says  Professor 
Josiah  Royce,  "has  its  highest  business,  to 
which  all  else  is  subordinate,  the  organiza- 
tion and  advance  of  learning.  Not  that  the 
individual  minds  are  now  neglected.  They 
are  wisely  guarded  as  the  servants  of  the 


134  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

one  great  cause.  But  the  real  mind  which 
the  university  has  to  train  is  the  mind  of 
the  nation — that  concrete  social  mind 
whereof  we  all  are  ministers  and  instni- 
ments.  The  daily  business  of  the  uni- 
versity is,  therefore,  first  of  all,  the  creation 
and  the  advance  of  learning,  as  the  means 
whereby  the  national  mind  can  be  trained." 
The  constructive  intellectual  spirit  so 
paramount  in  the  university  begins  in  the 
college.  The  more  formal  methods  of 
disciplinary  work  at  the  beginning  of  a 
collegiate  course  gradually  shade  off, 
during  the  closing  years,  into  the  methods 
and  spirit  of  original  discovery  adopted  in 
luiiversity  work.  In  the  college  there  is 
kindled  in  the  student  the  love  of  new 
truth  and  an  enthusiasm  for  the  advance- 
ment of  learning.  He  is  led  to  undertake 
creative  work,  and  become  an  active,  in- 
tellectual producer,  with  aspirations  to 
widen  the  horizon  of  thought  and  weave 
the  best  results  of  his  discoveries  into  the 
warp  and  woof  of  the  social  organism. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  135 

The  steps  leading  up  to  the  important 
period  in  the  student's  life  where  research 
is  for  the  sake  of  fruitfulness  are  traceable 
in  the  historic  development  and  require- 
ments of  college  studies.  In  nearly  all  the 
colleges  there  is  manifest  a  growing  spirit 
of  freedom  in  pursuing  a  course  of  study. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  elective  courses 
of  study  are  a  recognized  necessity  and 
benefit.  It  remains,  however,  an  open 
question  what  studies  should  be  required 
and  what  elected,  and  when  the  work  of 
specialization  should  begin.  If  we  keep  in 
view  the  fact  that  the  primary  aim  of  a 
college  education  is  to  elevate  and  broaden 
the  student  by  training  him  to  clear  and 
exact  thought  and  accurate  observation 
and  expression,  we  will  see  that,  whatever 
the  course  or  subject  of  study  chosen,  it  is 
only  the  means  to  this  end. 

Required  studies  should  be  based  upon 
the  principle  of  the  instrumental,  sub- 
stantive and  interpretative  elements  in  a 
liberal  education.     For  example,  the  study 


136  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

of  language  is  important  as  the  instrument 
of  thought.  A  knowledge  of  the  rich  and 
copious  foreign  languages  opens  up  the 
wisdom  of  the  past  and  present,  and  their 
study  develops  memory  and  precision,  as 
well  as  stimulates  and  provokes  thought. 
A  knowledge  of  some  of  them  is  essential 
to  the  highest  professional  success.  The 
student  who  can  read  and  appreciate  the 
foreign  languages  and  appropriate  their 
contents  has  a  decided  advantage. 

Mathematics  is,  likewise,  an  instrument 
of  thought.  It  is  the  foundation  of  the 
physical  sciences  and  the  framework  of  the 
material  universe.  Its  study  trains  the 
mind  to  think  in  relations  and  quantities, 
and  helps  to  obviate  loose  and  confused 
thinking.  Logic  and  psychology  are  also 
important  factors  in  developing  the  power 
of  orderly  and  protracted  thought. 

The  substantive  element  in  a  liberal 
education  is  found  in  the  study  of  the 
natural  and  moral  sciences.  The  study  of 
them  is  both  attractive   and   stimulating, 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  187 

and  helps  to  store  the  mind  with  useful 
facts  and  principles.  A  general  study  of 
science  should  be  required.  A  knowledge 
of  any  favorite  science  involves  in  some 
measure  a  knowledge  of  others.  Physics, 
chemistry,  biology,  astronomy,  are  all  more 
or  less  related.  There  is  an  interacting 
and  interweaving  of  the  facts  and  prin- 
ciples. Aside  from  the  information  im- 
parted, there  is  no  other  class  of  study  that 
will  so  effectively  train  the  mind  to  ac- 
curate habits  of  observation. 

Philosophy  is  the  interpretative  element 
in  education,  and  helps  to  give  unity  to 
our  knowledge.  No  one  can  reasonably 
lay  claim  to  be  liberally  educated  who  has 
not  some  knowledge  of  the  philosophical 
principles  which  underlie  and  explain  the 
phenomena  of  history  and  life. 

These  required  studies  should  be  em- 
braced and  upheld  in  all  college  courses  in 
order  to  give  unity  and  consistency  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  student.  The  value  of 
these  different  studies  cannot  be  reasonably 


138  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

doubted.  The  colleges  of  the  past  devel- 
oped strength  by  studying  these  few  sub- 
jects. No  technical  studies  or  professional 
training  can  be  substituted  for  this 
scholastic  training.  The  professional  man 
especially  needs  this  general  culture,  in 
order  to  escape  the  danger  of  concentrating 
and  contracting  his  intellectual  interest. 
Colleges  may  vigorously  adhere  to  these 
scholarly  requirements,  and  yet  advanta- 
geously introduce  the  elective  system.  The 
student  must  have  depth  as  well  as  breadth 
of  scholarship.  This  can  be  effectively 
done  by  the  specialization  which  the  elect- 
ive system  affords.  The  character  of  the 
different  studies  chosen,  however,  should 
have  a  cohesive  and  logical  connection  in 
order  to  secure  concentration  and  attain 
the  best  results. 

The  student  who  has  had  the  advantages 
of  a  thorough  preliminary  training  for  ad- 
mission to  college,  and  has  done  faithful 
work  in  the  required  studies  of  the  Fresh- 
man and  Sophomore  years,  should  have 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  139 

acquired  such  mental  discipline  and 
reached  such  a  plane  of  scholarship  that  he 
is  prepared  for  the  more  advanced  work  in 
special  studies  looking  toward  his  life 
work.  He  should  then  be  allowed  to 
choose,  within  reasonable  limits,  those 
subjects  for  study  during  the  Junior  and 
Senior  years  in  which  his  natural  aptitudes 
and  modes  of  thought  would  lead  him  to 
seek  the  highest  degree  of  proficiency. 
This  plan  accords  with  the  German  system 
of  education  at  the  point  where  the  student 
leaves  the  required  work  of  the  gymnasium 
and  enters  upon  the  elective  work  of  the 
university.  The  most  aggressive  colleges 
in  America  have  adopted  this  method,  and 
are  satisfied  with  the  results. 

The  elective  system  is  beset  with  diffi- 
culties. Liberty  is  always  subject  to  abuse, 
but  the  best  attainments  are  found  where 
negligence  and  mental  trifling  are  possible. 
The  advantages,  however,  are  many. 
When  the  student  decides  upon  a  course  of 
study  suited  to  his  real  or  imaginary  needs, 


140  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

he  exhibits  more  enthusiasm  than  if  it  is 
imposed.  He  is  spurred  on  to  his  best 
effort,  and  develops  personal  power  in 
original  work.  He  gains  depth  and 
breadth  of  training,  and  is  better  fitted  for 
more  extended  study  in  a  university  where 
the  means  and  facilities  are  unlimited  for 
the  highest  attainments  in  technical  and 
professional  training. 

This  is  the  sure  way  to  raise  up  a  class 
of  experts  and  investigators  who  will  keep 
in  touch  with  the  sources  of  knowledge, 
and,  by  doing  original  work,  contribute 
something  new  that  will  widen  the  horizon 
of  knowledge  and  extend  the  empire  of 
thought. 

PREPARATION   FOR  SKRVICE. 

The  function  of  the  college  is  some- 
thing more  than  developing  men  and 
women  and  promoting  knowledge.  Its 
aim  is,  likewise,  to  prepare  the  student  for 
service.  The  knowledge  and  culture 
gained  in  college  are  only  a  means  to  an 
end.     The   student   must   not   only  know 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  141 

something,  but  be  able  to  do  something  in 
the  sphere  of  life.  The  ultimate  object  of 
all  culture  is  to  equip  a  person  for  life's 
work.  Milton  declares  that  the  proper 
system  of  training  is  ''  that  which  fits 
man  to  perform  justly  and  skillfully  and 
magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  pri- 
vate and  public,  of  peace  and  war;" 
and  Herbert  Spencer  says  that  "the 
function  which  education  has  to  dis- 
charge is  to  prepare  us  for  complete 
living."  And  again,  "the  great  object  of 
education,"  says  Emerson,  "should  be 
commensurate  with  the  objects  of  life." 
The  mind,  placed  in  actual  conscious  rela- 
tions with  existing  realities  and  phenom- 
ena, should  be  prepared  for  the  largest 
service.  To  know,  see,  and  learn  the 
truth  is  a  preparation  for  doing.  The 
high  type  of  manhood  and  womanhood 
which  a  liberal  culture  in  college  aims  to 
promote  should  fit  the  student  for  every 
walk  of  life,  in  the  faniih',  society,  church, 
and  state. 


142  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

The  purpose  of  a  college  education 
should  be  twofold — professional  aud  human- 
itarian— to  prepare  for  one's  vocation  in 
life,  and  to  cultivate  humanitarian  sym- 
pathies for  the  largest  service.  A  person 
possessed  of  the  humanitarian  spirit  real- 
izes that  the  individual  life  is  rooted  in 
God,  and  consequently  has  a  broader  and 
deeper  sense  of  human  brotherhood,  which 
enables  him  to  keep  in  vital  and  sympa- 
thetic relation  with  human  activity  and 
experience.  When  these  two  aims  blend, 
the  best  results  are  obtained,  both  for  the 
individual  and  the  community. 

Aside  from  the  scientific  passion  for 
knowledge,  there  is  a  view  of  culture,  as 
Matthew  Arnold  puts  it,  "in  which  all  the 
love  of  our  neighbor,  the  impulses  toward 
action,  help,  and  beneficence,  the  desire 
for  removing  human  error,  clearing  human 
confusion,  and  diminishing  human  misery, 
the  noble  aspiration  to  leave  the  world 
better  and  happier  than  we  found  it — 
motives    eminently     such    as    are    called 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  143 

social — come  in  as  a  part  of  the  grounds 
of  culture,  and  the  main  and  pre-eminent 
part." 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  in  some  colleges 
the  ideals  and  spirit  are  such  as  to  lead  the 
student  to  place  power  on  wealth  above 
culture,  and  social  position  above  useful- 
ness. Professor  J.  M.  Hart  estimates  that 
nearly  one-half  of  the  students  who  attend 
Cambridge  and  Oxford  Universities,  in 
England,  do  so  not  for  the  sake  of  study, 
but  in  order  to  form  good  social  connec- 
tions. Liberal  culture  should  not  be  sacri- 
ficed to  preparing  men  for  idle  social  life 
and  paying  places.  Colleges  do  not  exist 
to  train  the  students'  powers  for  personal 
benefits,  but  to  promote  culture,  to  the  end 
that  a  larger  service  may  be  rendered  to 
human  progress.  "An  education,"  says 
President  Hill,  "that  fails  in  producing 
lofty  character,  sustained  and  nourished 
by  a  pure  faith,  may,  indeed,  fill  the  world 
with  capable  and  masterly  men  in  their 
vocation;    but,   unless   it   can    soften   the 


144  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

heart  of  success  and  open  the  pahn  of 
power,  it  only  strengthens  the  grasp  of 
greed,  and  misses  the  making  of  noble 
men." 

The  true  conception  of  man  and  his 
duties  leaves  but  little  room  for  individual- 
ism or  insolent  self-assertion.  No  one  can 
divorce  himself  from  his  fellow-men  and 
their  interests  without  lowering  and  debas- 
ing his  own  vocation  in  life,  and  becoming 
enfeebled  and  stunted  in  his  own  develop- 
ment. "The  supreme  object  of  the  col- 
lege," says  President  M.  E.  Gates,  '*is  to 
give  an  education  for  poiver  in  social  life^ 
Every  advancement  in  knowledge  should 
tend  to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  human 
sympathy.  Learning  should  be  turned  to 
the  advantage  of  the  people,  and  thus 
cause  intelligence  and  helpfulness  to  go 
together.  The  great  example  of  Christ 
teaches  that  a  life  of  service  is  the  only 
real  human  life.  The  quality  of  the  stu- 
dent's character  will  be  determined  by  his 
use  or  abuse  of  opportunity  for  service. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  145 

The  very  cliaracter  of  culture  is  social 
and  beneficent.  The  great  men  of  the 
world  have  most  fully  represented  human- 
ity. Touching  the  hearts  of  men,  they 
have  brought  out  the  best  of  humanity  in 
themselves,  illustrating  the  truth  of  the 
divine  law  whereby  we  attain  eminence, 
"Power  to  him  who  power  exerts."  The 
best  thought  not  only  contributes  to  the 
fulfillment  of  duty,  but  we  receive  impulse 
and  mental  activity  by  obedience  to  duty. 
Farrar  says:  "There  are  some  who  wish 
to  know  only  to  be  known,  which  is  base 
vanity ;  and  some  wish  to  know  only  that 
they  may  sell  their  knowledge,  which  is 
covetousness.  There  are  some  others  who 
wish  to  know  that  they  may  be  edified, 
and  some  that  they  may  edify;  that  is 
heavenly  prudence.  In  other  words,  the 
object  of  education  is  not  for  amusement, 
for  fame,  or  for  profit,  but  it  is  that  one 
may  learn  to  see  and  know  God  here,  and 
to  glorify  Him  in  heaven  hereafter.  Our 
education  is  desired  that,  in  the  language 


146  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

of  a  Harrow  prayer,  we  may  become 
profitable  members  of  the  church  and 
commonwealth,  and  hereafter  partakers  of 
the  immortal  glories  of  the  resurrection." 
The  measure  and  worth  of  a  college 
should  depend  upon  the  pure  and  forceful 
character  manifest  in  its  students,  and 
upon  their  willingness  to  employ  the  abil- 
ity and  knowledge  acquired  to  serve  the 
highest  good  of  their  fellow-men.  The 
college  that  does  this  most  efficiently  will 
produce  the  best  results. 

When  this  conception  of  the  function  of 
a  college  is  more  thoroughly  fixed  upon 
the  attention  of  educators  and  students,  it 
may  help  to  present  in  a  clearer  light  some 
educational  problems  in  regard  to  culture 
and  practical  training  in  college.  On  the 
one  hand,  there  is  a  demand  that  the  work 
of  our  colleges  should  become  higher  and 
more  theoretical  and  scholarly,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  utilitarian  opinion  and 
ideal  of  the  function  of  a  college  is  that  the 
work  should  be  more  progressive  and  prac- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  147 

tical.  One  class  emphasizes  the  impor- 
tance of  true  culture  and  of  making 
ardent,  methodical,  and  independent 
search  after  truth,  irrespective  of  its  ap- 
plication ;  the  other  believes  that  practice 
should  go  along  with  theory,  and  that  the 
college  should  introduce  the  student  into 
the  practical  methods  of  actual  life. 

They  are  both,  in  a  measure,  right. 
There  are  forces  at  work  in  society  to 
strengthen  the  demand  that  colleges  teach 
the  branches  of  industry,  as  well  as  pre- 
pare men  for  the  so-called  learned  pro- 
fessions. The  demand  is  based  on  the 
worth  and  dignity  of  intelligent  labor.  In 
fact,  a  scientific  and  technical  education  in 
some  branch  of  industry  has  already  won 
its  way  to  the  rank  of  a  learned  profession. 

The  demand  for  industrial  education  has 
grown  out  of  a  reorganization  of  the  indus- 
tries and  trades  of  the  world.  The  great 
industries  of  the  country  require  men  of 
trained  minds  and  directive  intelligence  to 
orjjanize    and   control   them.     Mechanical 


148  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

skill  is  in  great  demand,  and  workmen 
must  be  trained  not  merely  in  dexterity 
and  skill  in  the  use  of  tools,  but  they  must 
be  so  instnicted  in  the  principles  govern- 
ing science  that  they  shall  be  able  to  reach 
results  of  the  highest  practical  value  in  the 
sciences  and  arts.  This  age  requires  better 
mechanics,  manufacturers,  foremen,  archi- 
tects, farmers,  and  engineers — men  whose 
creative  genius  will  help  to  awaken  the 
aspirations  of  the  race  to  master  the  forces 
of  nature  and  bring  in  an  era  of  more  con- 
venience, comfort,  and  leisure  for  the  culti- 
vation of  the  mind  and  heart. 

Our  systems  of  education  are  planning 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  people.  Manual 
training  that  is  adapted  to  youth  between 
twelve  and  seventeen  years  of  age  is  incor- 
porated in  the  curricula  of  many  of  the  ex- 
isting public  schools.  Besides,  we  have  in 
the  United  States  more  than  one  hundred 
advanced  schools  in  technology  founded  as 
independent  organizations.  One-third  of 
them  have  .shops  for  laboratory  practice. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  149 

The  fact  that  such  a  prominent  place 
has  been  given  to  the  physical  and  prac- 
tical sciences  in  the  courses  of  study  in 
colleges  shows  that  these  institutions  are 
responding  to  the  constantly  increasing 
demands  of  a  practical  age.  Scientific 
departments  have  been  advantageously 
established  in  connection  with  our  well- 
endowed  imiversities.  It  is  both  desirable 
and  practicable  to  give  instruction  in 
mechanical,  electrical,  and  civil  engineer- 
ing in  our  high  grade  colleges.  This 
should  not  be  done,  however,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  liberal  culture. 

How  far  the  colleges  can  meet  the 
demand  for  technical  and  practical  educa- 
tion depends  upon  their  condition  and 
resources.  They  cannot  make  bricks  with- 
oiit  straw.  Wealthy  men  cannot  perform 
a  more  generous  act  than  to  help  establish 
these  schools  of  technology  in  connection 
with  our  colleges,  in  order  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  the  practical  and  useful  arts  of 
life. 


150  COLLEGES  I.V  AMERICA. 

There  is  danger,  perhaps,  in  pressing 
the  utilitarian  principle  in  edncation  too 
far.  It  is  not  the  colleges  that  make  the 
greatest  show  of  utility  that  develop  the 
most  effective  men.  In  the  effort  to  secnre 
a  practical  edncation,  it  is  important  not  to 
lessen  the  power  to  nnderstand  and  apply 
the  foundation  principles  which  imderlie 
actual  practice. 

In  the  German  universities  the  practical 
and  technical  are  left  alone.  Professor 
J.-M.  Hart  says  of  them  that  their  "chief 
task,  that  to  which  all  their  energies  are 
directed,  is  to  develop  great  thinkers — men 
who  will  extend  the  boundaries  of  knowl- 
edge." We  are  under  different  conditions 
in  this  country,  but  the  importance  of  the 
principle  should  not  be  overlooked.  Ever>' 
one  has  not  the  desire  or  ability  to  be  a 
great  scholar  and  thinker,  but  preparation 
for  all  the  so-called  practical  careers  of  life 
should  at  least  carry  the  student  through 
the  rigorous  discipline  of  a  college  course 
up  to  the  Junior  year,  when  he  may  elect 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  151 

studies  of  a  more  technical  nature  looking 
to  liis  life  work.  This  is  the  best  way  to 
get  a  profound  insight  into  principles  from 
which  to  deduce  practice  and  promote  the 
interests  of  human  society. 

Professor  Josiah  Royce  has  well  said  that 
"the  result  of  this  'conflict'  between  the 
two  ideals  of  academic  work  has  been  the 
union  of  both  in  the  effort  of  all  concerned 
to  build  up  a  system  of  university  training 
whose  ideal  is  at  once  one  of  scholarly 
method  and  of  scientific  comprehension  of 
fact.  For  the  scholar,  as  such,  be  he  biol- 
ogist, or  grammarian,  or  metaphysician, 
the  exclusive  opposition  between  *  words' 
and  *  things '  has  no  meaning.  He  works 
to  understand  truth,  and  the  truth  is  at 
once  word  and  thing,  thought  and  object, 
insight  and  apprehension,  law  and  content, 
form  and  matter.  *  *  *  There  is  no 
science  unexpressed ;  there  is  no  genuine 
expression  of  truth  that  ought  not  to  seek 
the  form  of  science." 

The    importance   ot    scientific    theories 


152  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

leading  to  the  best  practical  results  is 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  Columbus,  whose 
investigations  led  him  to  believe  in  the 
sphericity  of  the  earth  and  the  probability 
of  land  in  the  far  West.  "Adams  and 
Leverrier  discovered  Neptune  simul- 
taneously and  independently,  simply  be- 
cause certain  observations  had  revealed 
perturbations  that  could  be  most  naturally 
accounted  for  by  the  existence  of  an  un- 
known planet."  After  Professor  Helm- 
holtz  and  others  had  made  known  the 
subtle  laws  of  the  transmission  of  sound, 
there  was  only  a  step  to  its  practical  appli- 
cation in  the  use  of  the  telephone. 

The  essential  condition  in  all  industrial 
and  social  progress  is  the  acquisition  of 
judgment,  skill,  and  foresight  by  patient 
study  of  facts  and  principles.  It  is  energy 
within  the  being  that  gives  birth  to 
achievement  in  the  outward  sphere  of 
practical  life.  It  is  certainly  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  colleges  to  extend  the  best  edu- 
cational  opportunities  to   the   people.     It 


COLLEGES  AV  AMERICA.  153 

should  embrace  their  intellectual  and  in- 
dnstrial  pursnits. 

The  lofty  and  sacred  purpose  to  render 
the  highest  service,  to  advance  the  welfare 
of  men,  is  best  reached  by  training  men 
and  women  for  leadership.  The  demand 
for  educated  and  influential  Christian 
leadership  is  greater  than  the  supply.  In 
1890  there  were  about  15,000,000  pupils  in 
the  public  schools  receiving  elementary 
instruction,  while  only  one  in  455  of  the 
population  was  under  superior  instruction 
in  colleges.  The  majority  of  this  small 
number  will  be  among  the  real  leaders  of 
the  country.  The  character  of  the  nation 
will,  in  a  large  measure,  depend  on  the 
character  of  the  colleges  which  train  and 
shape  these  leaders. 

A  comparatively  few  men  act  as  leaders, 
frame  platforms,  and  shape  legislation.  It 
is  quite  difficult  to  find  even  this  small 
number  who  are  qualified  for  leadership. 
Nearly  all  our  political  and  social  reform 
movements  are  asking  for  a  Moses,  or  a 


164  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

IvUtlier,  or  a  Lincoln,  to  lead  them  to 
victory.  Some  organizations  of  labor  are 
officered  by  foreign  bom  leaders  who  are 
ignorant  and  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
moral  ideas  and  principles  that  have 
shaped  our  national  life.  There  is  a 
large  number  of  imperfectly  equipped 
men  in  all  professions  and  in  social  move- 
ments, presuming  to  act  as  leaders,  who 
might  well  be  replaced  by  disciplined 
and  cultured  men,  able  to  grapple  with 
modern  social  problems,  and  to  conduct 
the  people  to  higher  thought  and  nobler 
action.  Men  who  are  to  become  leaders 
and  gain  a  strong  hold  on  society  must 
have  a  good  foundation  of  general  knowl- 
edge, and  be  trained  to  think  on  compli- 
cated questions.  The  man  of  thorough 
training,  whether  literary,  scientific,  or 
practical,  has  an  immense  advantage  in 
leadership. 

It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  college,  in  its 
aim  to  serve  the  people,  to  extend  such 
educational  opportunities  to  youth  as  will 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  155 

equip   them    for   true  leadership  iu  every 
vocatiou  of  life. 

The  American  college  student  should  be 
sent  forth  with  a  purpose  even  stronger 
than  that  of  the  Greek  youth,  who  took 
the  oath  of  citizenship  in  these  words  : 

"  I  will  transmit  my  fatherland  [its  institutions,  its 
civilization,  its  system  of  education,  its  people],  not 
only  not  less,  but  greater  and  better,  than  it  was 
committed  to  me." 


V. 

STUDENT  LIFK  IN  COLLEGE. 

Admission  to  college  is  dependent  upon 
the  mental  and  moral  fitness  of  the  stu- 
dent. If  the  student  has  completed  the 
work  of  an  advanced  high  school,  or  that 
of  an  academy,  he  may  in  many  colleges 
pass  immediately  into  the  Freshman  year 
without  examination.  The  student  is  gen- 
erally required  to  have,  as  a  necessary 
preparation  to  gain  admission  to  the 
Freshman  class,  three  years  of  Latin  and 
two  of  Greek,  or  an  amount  of  modern 
languages  equivalent  to  the  Greek,  besides 
mathematics,  history,  and  English.  In 
some  cases  the  qualifications  of  the  can- 
didate must  be  such  as  to  enable  him  to 
read  at  sight  either  Greek,  Latin,  French, 
or  German.     An  essay  in  English  must  be 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  157 

correct  in  composition,  spelling,  grammar, 
expression,  and  division  into  paragraphs. 

Some  favor  admitting  the  student  on 
trial,  and  giving  him  an  opportunity  to 
show  his  fitness  and  worth  by  application 
to  study.  Certainly  the  best  test  of  the 
student's  knowledge  is  the  ability  to  pur- 
sue advantageously  the  prescribed  course 
of  study. 

After  admission  to  college  the  student 
has  at  least  fifteen  hours  per  week  of  class- 
room work.  He  may  select,  within  a  lim- 
ited range,  his  studies.  This  selection  is 
done  under  the  guidance  of  the  professors, 
and  depends  largely  on  the  acquirements 
or  deficiencies  of  the  student.  About 
three-fourths  of  the  Freshman  and  Sopho- 
more years  are  devoted  to  the  classics  and 
mathematics.  A  large  share  of  the  work 
in  the  Junior  and  Senior  years  may  be 
devoted  to  specialization  in  science,  lan- 
guage, mathematics,  history,  sociology,  or 
philosophy.  In  some  cases  elocution, 
music,  and  the  fine  arts  rightly  receive  a 


158  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

fair  share  of  attention  on  the  part  of  a 
large  number  of  students  throughout  the 
college  course. 

The  advantages  of  a  college  education 
do  not  consist  alone  in  the  training  of  the 
faculties  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
but  one  of  its  chief  advantages  grows  out 
of  the  incidental  noble  and  generous  asso- 
ciations and  influences. 

The  college  is  a  homogeneous  com- 
munity of  a  distinct  and  peculiar  type.  It 
is  a  little  world  by  itself  The  professors 
and  students  are  separated  from  the  com- 
mon activities  of  life,  and  a  common  feel- 
ing unites  all  in  a  common  bond.  There 
are  poured  into  this  community  the  hopes, 
aspirations,  habits,  and  tastes  of  the  dif- 
ferent students,  which  are  soon  molded 
into  a  common  life,  and  become,  in  turn, 
an  important  factor  in  forming  the  char- 
acter and  directing  the  life  of  the  student. 

The  college  classes  become  the  organic 
centers  of  college  life.  For  four  years  the 
students  meet,  at  least  in  the  smaller  col- 


COLLEGES  /iV  AMERICA.  159 

leges,  in  the  same  lecture  rooms  for  com- 
mon studies,  and  become  acquainted  with 
each  other's  talents,  tempers,  and  charac- 
teristics. It  is  within  this  charmed  circle 
t1iat  the  students  find  their  associates  and 
form  warm  and  lasting  friendships.  It  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  class  spirit  runs 
high  and  class  sentiment  becomes  a  strong 
abiding  power  with  the  student.  It  is 
worth  much  to  any  young  man  or  woman 
to  be  initiated  into  this  hallowed  sanctuary 
and  catch  its  spirit  and  receive  its  uplifting 
influence.  These  central  forces  of  the 
college  classes  naturally  combine  into  a 
community  with  a  common  life.  Thus 
each  college  comes  to  have  a  genius  loci  of 
its  own.  The  subtle  and  fascinating  influ- 
ence of  the  common  life  and  spirit  is  the 
esprit  de  corps  of  a  college,  and  exerts  no 
small  influence  over  the  life  of  the  stu- 
dents. It  gives  exhilaration  and  stimulus 
to  the  students,  and  its  formative  power  is 
felt  throughout  their  lives,  molding  char- 
acter and  giving  form  to  their  opinions  and 


160  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

direction  to  their  aims,  so  that  the  college 
becomes  a  real  Alma  Mater.  It  is  this 
spirit  that  makes  and  enforces  a  peculiar 
sentiment  in  the  college  community,  which 
becomes  almost  as  strong  as  positive  law. 
These  influences  emanate  in  various  ways. 
No  one  can  trace  them  to  their  ultimate 
source,  but  all  feel  the  effect  of  these  dom- 
inant forces,  and  realize  that  their  lives 
are,  in  some  measure,  gradually  but  surely 
becoming  molded  and  shaped  by  them. 
These  influences  are  among  the  most  cher- 
ished recollections  in  after  years,  and  unite 
the  student  to  his  college  with  affectionate 
regard.  There  is  certainly  no  better  place 
for  our  youth  to  form  and  solidify  a  manly 
character,  and  develop  independent  con- 
victions and  humanitarian  sympathies 
which  will  be  of  lasting  satisfaction. 

Noah  Porter,  in  speaking  of  the  benefits 
of  association  in  a  college  community, 
truthfully  says:  "It  is  enough  for  us  to 
be  able  to  assert  that  thousands  of  the 
noblest   men,  who  stand   foremost  in  the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  161 

ranks  of  social  and  professional  life,  would 
be  forward  to  acknowledge  that  tliey  are 
indebted  to  the  cultivating  influences  of 
college  friendships  and  college  associations 
for  the  germs  of  their  best  principles,  their 
noblest  aspirations,  and  their  most  refined 
tastes.  *  ^  *  True  manhood,  in  intel- 
lect and  character,  is  in  no  community  so 
sagaciously  discerned  and  so  honestly  hon- 
ored as  in  this  community.  Pretension 
and  shams  are  in  none  more  speedily  and 
cordially  detected  and  exposed.  Whether 
displayed  in  manners  or  intellectual  ef- 
forts, conceit  is  rebuked  and  effectually 
repressed.  Modest  merit  and  refined  tastes 
are  appreciated,  first  by  the  select  few,  and 
then  by  the  less  discerning  many.  Each 
individual  spectator  of  the  goings-on  of 
this  active  life  is  learning  intellectual  and 
moral  lessons  which  he  cannot  forget  if  he 
would,  and  which  he  would  not  if  he  could, 
and  he  comes  away  with  a  rich  freight  of 
the  most  salutary  experiences  of  culture  in 
his  tastes,  his  estimates  of  character,  his 


162  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

judgments  of  life,  as  well  as  of  positive 
achievements  in  literary  skill  and  power." 

Some  of  the  effective  means  of  social  life 
among  the  students  are  the  open  and  the 
secret  societies.  They  are  purely  voluntary, 
and  are  originated  and  managed  by  the 
members. 

The  Greek  Letter  Societies  are  secret^  and 
prevail  in  nearly  all  colleges.  They  are 
generally  limited  to  ten  or  twenty  mem- 
bers, and  the  chapters  in  the  different 
colleges  bear  a  friendly  and  mutual  rela- 
tion to  each  other.  Among  the  Eastern 
colleges,  nearly  all  these  societies  have 
elegant  chapter  houses,  in  which  the  mem- 
bers have  rooms,  and  where  they  enjoy 
homelike  comforts;  while  in  the  Western 
colleges  the  societies  have  attractive  rooms, 
with  tasteful  appointments,  which  become 
a  place  of  rendezvous  for  their  members. 
Their  only  bond  is  congeniality.  Some 
very  different  types  of  character  are  mani- 
fest in  these  societies.  Students  group 
themselves    according    to    their    common 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  163 

tastes,  habits,  and  character.  Some  socie- 
ties aim  at  scholarship  or  literary  excel- 
lence, while  others  make  wealth  or  social 
qualities  an  essential  requirement.  Even 
*'  fast  fellows,"  if  there  be  such,  are  eager 
to  group  themselves  together  into  a  secret 
society.  A  few  of  these  societies  are  of  a 
literary  character,  but  the  object  of  the 
majority  is  to  promote  sociability.  It  is 
claimed  that  their  influence  in  some  col- 
leges is  positively  injurious,  while  in  others 
they  are  beneficial  and  helpful  in  cultivat- 
ing social  qualities  and  in  establishing 
warm  intimate  friendships  among  the 
members. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  attendant 
evils  do  not  offset  their  advantages.  They 
are  expensive,  and  often  accompanied  with 
distractions  unfavorable  to  student  life. 
Sometimes  the  late  hours  and  suppers  and 
other  convivial  indulgences  absorb  time 
and  lower  scholarship.  They  afford  op- 
portunity secretly  to  do  evil.  The  mem- 
bers  may  plan   escapades   and   hatch   in- 


104  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

trigues,  and  cover  them  up  so  as  to  make 
it  almost  impossible  for  the  college  author- 
ities to  discover  the  guilty  ones.  Yet 
many  excellent  things  are  said  of  them 
and  of  the  mutual  benefits  to  their  mem- 
bers. 

The  open  societies,  devoted  exclusively 
to  literary  work,  need  no  justification. 
They  are  voluntary  associations  for  general 
literary  and  forensic  culture.  Oratorical 
and  literary  accomplishments  are  a  pre- 
requisite to  the  highest  success  and  useful- 
ness. The  student  who  improves  the 
opportunities  of  these  societies  need  not 
neglect  his  regular  college  work,  but  in 
them  can  train  himself  to  think  consecu- 
tively, and  gain  facility  of  expression  and 
an  acquaintance  with  parliamentary  law. 
If  he  makes  faithful  preparation,  he  will 
escape  bombast  and  loose  thinking  and 
expression,  and  will  become  familiar  with 
public  movements,  political  questions,  and 
social  tendencies.  For  these  and  other 
reasons   the   literary    societies    should  be 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  165 

encouraged,  and  students  should  consider 
it  a  privilege  to  become  members  of  the 
same. 

Political  clubs  are,  likewise,  organized 
among  the  colleges  to  promote  the  success 
of  their  several  parties  and  the  triumph  of 
their  respective  principles.  At  the  time  of 
national  contests  the  clubs  are  especially 
active  at  mass  meetings,  in  joint  debates, 
and  speeches,  which  set  forth  the  merits  of 
party  principles  and  candidates.  These 
experiences  are  both  pleasant  and  instruct- 
ive. The  dignified  participation  of  stu- 
dents in  active  political  work  tends  to  fire 
their  patriotism  and  better  equip  them  for 
the  important  social  and  civil  duties  of 
life.  Political  leagues  are  now  organized 
in  nearly  all  our  colleges,  with  a  view  to 
strengthen  the  political  party  ties  of  the 
students  in  the  several  colleges  and  extend 
the  party  spirit  and  principle. 

Glee  clubs  and  other  musical  clubs, 
together  with  classical  and  scientific  clubs, 
likewise  afford  ample  opportunity  for  culti- 


166  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

vating  social  life,  and  furnish  pleasant 
entertainment. 

Interest  in  athletic  sports  and  out-door 
amusements  is  often  intense.  Foot-ball 
and  base-ball  are  the  most  popular  games. 
Boat  clubs  are  especially  popular  at  Har- 
vard and  Yale.  Bicycle  clubs  and  lawn 
tennis  clubs  are  made  quite  enjoyable  to  a 
large  class  of  students. 

College  students  also  edit  and  publish 
college  newspapers  and  journals.  They 
are  issued  as  daily,  weekly,  or  monthly 
papers,  and  are  supposed  to  voice  the  sen- 
timent of  the  college  and  reflect  its  social, 
intellectual,  and  moral  conditions.  These 
journals  help  to  keep  the  alumni  and  the 
undergraduate  students  in  touch  with  the 
college  and  its  work. 

The  religious  life  in  college  is  very 
important.  One  of  the  primary  purposes 
of  the  founders  of  American  colleges  was 
to  promote  such  a  religious  life  among 
students  that  they  would  go  forth  into  all 
vocations  as  religious  teachers  and  leaders 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  167 

of  the  people.  This  religious  purpose  has 
not  been  entirely  thwarted.  The  general 
religious  interest  was  never  more  marked 
and  aggressive  than  at  present.  From  one- 
half  to  five-sevenths  of  the  students  in 
American  colleges  make  an  open  con- 
fession of  Christ.  In  1893,  there  were 
70,419  young  people  in  Protestant  colleges. 
Of  these,  38,327  were  members  of  churches. 
Within  the  last  few  years  the  religious  tone 
of  our  colleges  has  been  elevated  and  im- 
proved. The  average  American  student 
feels  the  need  of  educating  the  spiritual 
nature,  and  that  there  is  no  better  way  to 
attain  this  end  than  tlirough  a  knowledge  of 
the  Bible  and  the  soul  touch  of  the  Christ-life. 
College  authorities,  recognizing  the  stu- 
dent's need  of  daily  spiritual  food,  almost 
universally  require  once  a  day  attendance 
at  college  prayers,  which  last  from  fifteen 
to  thirty  minutes.  The  students  have  fre- 
quent opportunities  to  meet  the  college 
pastor  or  one  of  the  professors  for  con- 
versation on  personal  religion. 


168  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Revivals  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in 
many  of  our  American  colleges.  These 
religious  awakenings  are  strong  and  per- 
vasive, and  not  only  show  the  deep  relig- 
ious interest,  but  give  a  Christian  tone  to 
the  body  of  students.  The  extent  and 
intensity  of  these  revivals  in  some  colleges 
is  so  manifest  that  from  three-fourths  to 
nine-tenths  of  the  graduates  go  out  from 
their  halls  professing  Christians. 

The  Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's 
Christian  Associations  are  organized  in 
nearly  all  the  colleges,  to  secure  growth  in 
the  Christian  life  and  to  encourage  ag- 
gressive work  among  the  students.  They 
have  either  separate  buildings  on  the 
college  campus,  or  rooms  fitted  up  in  some 
of  the  college  buildings,  for  their  regular 
religious  meetings.  These  associations  are 
operated  through  standing  committees, 
composed  of  one  or  more  members  from 
each  college  class.  These  societies  have 
done  much  to  awaken,  increase,  and  in- 
tensify  the   interest    of   the    students    in 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  169 

religious  matters,  and  by  prayer  and 
mutual  sympathy  have  strengthened  each 
other's  Christian  character  and  principles 
during  the  trying  years  of  college  life. 

The  morals  of  students  should  not  be 
expected  to  rise  much  above  the  morals  of 
the  homes  from  which  they  come.  The 
formative  period  of  the  student  begins 
prior  to  college  life.  Parents  who  neglect 
this  opportune  time  for  training  the  moral 
life  should  not  place  this  responsibility 
upon  college  professors  and  expect  them  to 
make  up  for  parental  neglect.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact,  however,  that  only  a  very 
small  per  cent,  of  college  students  are 
known  to  be  immoral.  The  prevalence  of 
the  drinking  habit  is  decreasing.  In  one  or 
two  of  the  Eastern  colleges  a  large  per  cent, 
of  the  students  will  take  a  social  glass  on 
public  occasions  and  at  inter-collegiate 
games,  but  in  Western  colleges  this  custom 
is  rarely  practiced.  Money  supplied  by 
over-indulgent  parents  is  the  occasion  of 
most  of   the   immoralities.     There   is    no 


170  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

general  laxity  of  college  law  and  sentiment 
in  regard  to  the  morals  of  the  student. 
Most  college  authorities  deal  severely  with 
known  cases  of  drunkenness,  theater  going, 
and  gambling. 

The  consensus  of  opinion  among  college 
authorities  is  that  the  morals  of  students 
are  better  than  those  of  the  same  number 
of  youth  outside  the  college.  "  Our 
opinion  is,"  says  Noah  Porter,  "and  we 
believe  it  will  be  confirmed  by  the  most 
extended  observation  and  the  most  ac- 
curate statistics,  that  there  is  no  com- 
munity in  which  the  pre-eminently  critical 
period  of  life  can  be  spent  with  greater 
safety  than  it  can  in  the  college."  Presi- 
dent Timothy  Dwight  bears  this  testi- 
mony: "There  is  no  community  of  the 
same  number  anywhere  in  the  world  which 
has  a  better  .spirit,  or  is  more  free  from 
what  is  unworthy,  than  the  community 
gathered  within  our  university  borders. 
The  religious  life  of  the  community  has 
been  earnest  and  sincere.     Tlie  proportion 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  171 

of  Christian  men  in  the  university  is  very 
large,  and  the  influence  exerted  by  them  is 
manifest  in  its  results." 

President  Thwing  says:  "I  do  believe, 
and  believe  upon  evidence,  that  the  morals 
of  the  American  college  student  are  cleaner 
than  the  morals  of  the  young  man  in  the 
office,  or  behind  the  counter,  or  at  the 
bench.  His  life  and  associations  belong 
to  the  realm  of  the  intellect,  not  to  the 
realm  of  the  appetite.  His  discipline  is  a 
training  in  that  virtue  the  most  compre- 
hensive of  all  virtues — the  virtue  of  self- 
control.  He  is  able  to  trace  more  carefully 
than  most  the  relations  of  cause  and  effect 
in  the  sphere  of  moral  action.  He  recog- 
nizes the  penalties  of  base  indulgence.  It 
is,  therefore,  my  conviction  that  the  col- 
lege man  is  at  once  less  tempted  to  the 
satisfaction  of  evil  appetites,  and  less 
indulgent  towards  this  satisfaction,  than 
are  most  young  men." 

The  expenses  in  college  vary  according 
to  the  means  and  dispositions  of  the  stu- 


172  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

dents  themselves.  In  making  general  esti- 
mates, it  is  impossible  to  be  strictly 
accurate. 

The  average  cost  per  year  of  an  educa- 
tion at  Harvard  is  estimated  at  about  $900; 
at  Yale  and  Columbia,  %']QO\  at  Princeton, 
Boston,  Cornell,  and  Amherst,  $600;  at 
Wellcsley,  Smith,  and  Vassar  Colleges, 
$500  to  $600.  The  average  cost  of  an  edu- 
cation in  most  Western  colleges  does  not 
exceed  $300  or  %\qo.  At  Oberlin  College, 
Wooster  University,  and  the  Ohio  Wes- 
leyan  University  the  average  yearly  ex- 
penses are  reduced  to  %2QO  or  $250. 

It  is  evident  that  higher  education  is 
more  expensive  in  Eastern  than  in  West- 
ern colleges.  The  difference  arises  from 
various  causes.  The  tuition  ranges  from 
$100  to  $150  in  Eastern  colleges,  and  from 
$30  to  $50  in  Western  colleges.  Again, 
the  professors  in  most  of  the  Western  col- 
leges receive  smaller  salaries  than  those  in 
the  Eastern  colleges.  In  many  of  the  small- 
er college  towns  the  cost  of  living  is  low. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  173 

Then  the  student's  personal  and  social 
habits  play  an  important  part  in  making 
up  the  general  average.  The  large  room 
rent  and  elaborate  furnishings,  expensive 
athletic  sports,  and  costly  fraternity  life  is 
much  more  manifest  in  the  Eastern  than 
in  the  Western  colleges.  The  students  are 
prone  to  follow  the  standards  of  home 
expenses,  and  fall  in  with  the  spirit  of  the 
wealthy  social  class,  and  indulge  in  elab- 
orate living.  Parents  should  discourage 
any  display  of  wealth  or  extravagance  in 
college  if  they  wish  their  sons  not  to  spend 
their  time  attending  clubs,  theaters,  and 
questionable  places  of  amusement,  but  to 
devote  their  attention  to  attaining  true 
scholarship. 

The  student's  manner  of  living  varies 
according  to  location  and  circumstances. 
In  Eastern  colleges  the  students  reside 
mostly  in  dormitories  located  on  the  col- 
lege campus,  or  in  fraternity  chapter 
houses,  and  secure  their  board  outside  in 
clubs   or   restaurants.     These   rooms   rent 


174  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

from  $50  to  $300  a  year,  and  the  price  of 
board  varies  from  $3  to  $7  per  week.  The 
dormitory  system  does  not  prevail  to  any 
great  extent  among  Western  colleges. 
Students  rent  rooms  in  private  residences, 
l^aying  from  50  cents  to  $2  per  week,  and 
find  board  in  families  or  clubs  at  a  cost  of 
$2  to  $3  per  week.  The  students  boarding 
in  clubs  are  comparatively  free  from  re- 
straints, and  often  fail  to  cultivate  the 
social  amenities  and  table  manners  which 
should  characterize  a  cultivated  gentleman. 
For  this  reason,  boarding  in  private  fami- 
lies, where  a  woman's  presence  usually 
lends  grace  and  dignity  to  social  life  at  the 
table,  is  better  for  the  student.  The  col- 
lege student  cannot  afford,  for  the  sake  of 
cheapness  in  club  life,  to  become  rude  or 
coarse.  The  people  look  to  the  college- 
trained  man  for  that  inherent  polish  which 
reveals  itself  in  good  taste  and  refined 
manners.  Success  and  usefulness  in  life 
often  depend  upon  these  small  matters. 
The  students  in  American  colleges  are 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  175 

not  measured  by  social  and  financial 
standards.  The  colleges  sustain  demo- 
cratic ideals  and  methods  by  discouraging 
costly  luxury,  and  encouraging  simplicity 
of  living  without  making  life  bare  of  all 
that  is  elevating  and  refining.  They  be- 
lieve that  "plain  living  and  high  thinking" 
is  the  way  to  call  out  the  talent  hedged 
about  by  financial  difficulties,  as  well  as  to 
spur  those  gifted  with  fortune  to  higher 
aims  and  nobler  efforts.  The  student  who 
has  the  promise  of  a  large  inheritance  has 
intimate  social  relations  with  those  whose 
only  capital  is  brain  and  heart.  The  true 
college  test  is  thus  expressed  by  President 
Thwing:  "Brain  is  the  only  symbol  of 
aristocracy,  and  the  examination  room  the 
only  field  of  honor;  the  intellectual, 
ethical,  spiritual  powers  the  only  test  of 
merit;  a  mighty  individuality  the  only 
demand  made  of  each,  and  a  noble  enlarge- 
ment of  a  noble  personality  the  only 
ideal."  This  is  a  healthful  condition  in 
college  life,  and  tends  to  develop  in  the 


176  COLLEGES  /.V  AMERICA. 

student  self-respect  and  independence  as 
an  essential  element  in  true  citizenship. 

Students  of  limited  means  are  encour- 
aged to  secure  an  education.  The  young 
man  of  ability  and  perseverance,  who  com- 
mands the  esteem  of  the  college  com- 
munity, will  receive  encouragement  and 
support  to  complete  his  course  in  college. 
There  are  many  charitable  foundations  to 
help  a  needy  young  man  in  college. 
Harvard  gives  away  annually  to  students 
nearly  $100,000  in  prizes,  scholarships,  and 
fellowships.  Cornell  has  six  hundred  free 
scholarships,  and  other  colleges  deal  gen- 
erously with  earnest  and  worthy  students. 
The  hesitating  young  man  who  desires  an 
education  would  do  well  to  follow  Frank- 
lin's advice,  "Young  man,  empty  your 
purse  in  your  head."  If  necessity  requires 
that  the  student  should  go  through  college 
poorly  dressed  and  with  plain  living,  he 
can  afford  to  face  these  apparent  disad- 
vantages when  he  is  confident  that  within 
a  few  years,  by  force  of  application,  he  can 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  Yll 

win  a  position  of  honor  and  independence 
as  the  reward  of  true  merit.  It  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  the  majority  of  the  stu- 
dents in  our  American  colleges  come  from 
homes  of  moderate  means,  and  that  fully 
one-third  are  earning  their  way  tlirough 
collesfe. 


VI. 

THE  PERSONAL   FACTORS  IN   A  COLLEGE 
EDUCATION. 

One  of  the  personal  elements  entering 
into  a  college  education  is  the  choice  of  a 
college  to  attend.  This  decision  is  a  prob- 
lem of  the  first  importance,  and  should  not 
be  left  to  ignorance  or  caprice,  but  oiight 
to  be  carefully  considered,  inasmuch  as  it 
largely  involves  the  future  type  of  char- 
acter a  student  will  have  after  the  form- 
ative period  of  college  life.  The  college 
puts  a  life-long  stamp  iipon  its  graduates. 
It  largely  shapes  their  tastes,  determines 
the  company  they  keep,  and  greatly  influ- 
ences the  serious  work  of  their  lives. 
There  are  a  few  principles  by  which  we 
may  tost  the  excellence  of  a  college  with- 
out undue  disparagement  of  any. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  179 

In  the  first  place,  a  young  man  or 
woman  should  select  a  college  where  the 
standard  of  scholarship  is  high.  The 
number  and  extent  of  studies  in  the  col- 
lege curriculum  is  not  so  important  as  the 
quality  and  tone  of  instruction.  The  world 
has  come  to  require  accuracy  and  thor- 
oughness in  instruction.  What  little  a 
student  knows  he  ought  to  know  thor- 
oughly, and  then  he  can  speak  and  act 
with  assurance.  A  low  intellectual  tone  or 
lack  of  critical  work  on  the  part  of  a  college 
has  a  debilitating  influence  on  the  student. 
The  professors  should  have  a  ripe  scholar- 
ship, and  be  earnest  and  strong  in  their 
work,  as  well  as  inspire  scholarly  ambi- 
tions. Their  bearing  should  be  kind, 
courteous,  and  gentlemanly,  in  order  that 
the  students  may  come  to  possess  more 
manly  and  womanly  qualities  of  character 
as  well  as  scholarship.  Such  teachers,  in 
close  personal  contact  with  students,  will 
awaken  new  powers,  and  help  to  discipline 
the   mind   to   clear   thinking,  and   impart 


180  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

noble  impulses  that  will  enrich  manhood 
and  womanhood. 

Again,  the  college  buildings,  libraries, 
apparatus,  and  general  equipment  are  im- 
portant, but  not  as  essential  as  the  teaching 
force.  President  Gates  says :  "  Harvard 
ranked  as  a  small  training  college,  and  had 
no  cabinets  illustrative  of  science,  when 
she  trained  Emerson  and  Holmes  and 
Lowell,  among  all  her  gifted  sons  still  her 
triple  crown  of  glory.  Bowdoin  had  no 
expensive  buildings  upon  her  modest 
campus  when  Hawthorne  and  Longfellow 
there  drank  at  the  celestial  fount.  Am- 
herst, among  her  purple  hills,  boasted  no 
wealth  of  appliances  or  endowment  when 
she  printed  the  roll  of  undergraduates 
rendered  forever  illustrious  by  the  names 
of  Richard  S.  Storrs,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
and  Roswell  D.  Hitchcock.  Presidents 
Woolsey  and  Wayland,  and  Mark  Hopkins 
and  Martin  B.  Anderson,  were  trained  for 
their  noble  and  ennobling  work  in  colleges 
which  lacked  rich  appliances  and  throng- 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  181 

ing  numbers."  Such,  however,  has  been 
the  growth  of  the  sciences  and  advance- 
ment in  the  methods  of  teaching,  that  in 
our  modern  schools  for  superior  instruction 
the  well-equipped  college  has  a  decided 
advantage  over  those  with  meager  ap- 
pliances. 

Likewise,  select  a  college  where  the  life 
and  esprit  de  corps  is  the  very  best.  The 
college  is  not  an  exercising  ground  for  the 
intellect  alone,  but  a  place  for  inspiring 
ideas  and  aims.  These  are  the  soul  of 
college  life.  They  are  more  important 
than  college  buildings,  endowment  or 
libraries. 

The  religious  principle  should  have  the 
ascendancy  in  the  choice  of  a  college, 
because  religion  demands  the  supreme 
place  in  life.  The  moral  and  religious 
character  is  by  no  means  fixed  when  the 
student  enters  college,  and  he  needs  to 
come  into  a  pure  Christian  atmosphere, 
where  the  heart,  as  well  as  the  mind,  is 
molded  and  stimulated. 


182  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  student 
should  favor  a  college  of  his  own  denom- 
ination, or  the  one  that  he  thinks  best  rep- 
resents the  spirit  and  form  of  Christianity. 
His  church  affiliations  should  be  strength- 
ened. In  advising  this,  we  do  so  not  from 
any  sectarian  bigotry.  The  probabilities 
are  that  if  the  student  attends  a  college  of 
another  denomination,  the  impressions 
made  may  tend  to  produce  indifference  to 
the  church  of  his  fathers,  or  weaken  his 
own  Christian  efficiency  in  it.  The  young 
should  maintain  personal  loyalty  to  the 
church  that  has  helped  to  build  up  their 
Christian  character  and  to  inspire  in  them 
a  thirst  for  a  broader  culture. 

It  is  claimed  to  be  an  advantage  to  the 
student  living  in  the  West  to  select  a 
college  in  his  own  state,  where  he  will 
form  his  friendships  and  associations, 
which  afterward  may  be  of  value  to  him 
in  his  chosen  profession.  In  such  cases,  it 
is  thought  advisable  to  take  graduate  work 
in  the  East,  in  some  university  which  is 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  183 

pre-emiiieut  for  its  special  courses,  libraries, 
laboratories,  and  appliances.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  would  often  be  an  advantage  for 
the  Eastern  student  to  take  work  in  the 
best  universities  of  the  West. 

We  come  now  to  speak  of  some  of  the 
personal  Jmidrances  and  advantages  in  ac- 
quiring an  education.  Student  life  has  its 
hindrances.  All  have  not  the  same  capacity 
to  assimilate  culture.  It  requires  more 
effort  for  some  to  master  a  college  course 
than  for  others.  A  thorough  college  train- 
ing costs  arduous  labor.  Many  are  not 
willing  to  pay  the  price,  and  to  practice 
the  self-denial  necessary  to  acquire  the 
power  to  think  and  master  the  great  sub- 
jects of  study.  It  demands  all  the  force  of 
a  strong  conviction  and  an  earnest  resolu- 
tion to  go  through  college  and  win  a  place 
among  the  thinkers  of  the  world.  One 
reason  why  so  many  students  enter  college 
and  drop  out  before  they  complete  their 
course  of  study,  arises  from  the  fact  that 
they  have  not  acquired  the  power  of  appli- 


184  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

cation.  Their  feeble  wills  and  intellectual 
lethargy  succumb  before  mental  tasks  re- 
quiring eight  or  ten  hours  of  hard,  earnest 
work  a  day.  They  should  be  encouraged 
with  the  words  of  Lord  Bacon,  who  says: 
"There  is  no  comparison  between  that 
which  we  may  lose  by  not  trying  and  not 
succeeding,  since  by  not  trying  we  throw 
away  the  chance  of  an  immense  good,  and 
by  not  succeeding  we  only  incur  the  loss  of 
a  little  human  labor." 

Again,  there  are  those  who  are  led  to 
look  for  some  short  cut  to  obtain  a  college 
education.  This  is  a  serious  mistake. 
"Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap,"  is  as  true  in  an  intellectual 
career  as  in  any  other  work  of  life.  The 
laws  of  mental  growth  must  be  observed  to 
make  the  most  of  ourselves,  and  to  do  the 
most  for  humanity  and  God.  The  young 
must  learn  that  it  takes  years  of  work  to 
get  a  college  education.  "  If  I  am  asked," 
says  President  J.  W.  Bashford,  "why 
Methodism  does  not  produce  more  John 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  185 

Wesleys,  I  assign  as  one  reason  of  tins 
failure  the  fact  that  none  of  us  observe  the 
laws  of  mental  development  as  John 
Wesley  kept  them,  and  devote  the  time 
to  mental  growth  which  John  Wesley 
gladly  gave.  I  turn  to  Arminius,  and  find 
that  he  spent  between  twelve  and  thirteen 
years  at  the  universities  of  Europe  before 
he  began  to  preach.  Arminius  died  at 
fifty-nine.  Yet  he  left  behind  him  a  work 
on  divinity  which  ranks  him  with  I^a  Place 
and  Newton,  with  Calvin  and  Aiigustine 
and  Spinoza,  as  one  of  the  world's  master 
minds.  Calvin  spent  nine  years  at  college, 
and  later  was  able  to  devote  three  years 
more  to  study.  Augustine  devoted  thirteen 
years  to  study  after  his  father  sent  him 
away  to  college  before  he  accepted  the 
professorship  at  Milan.  It  vv'as  eleven 
years  after  Luther  left  home  for  college 
before  he  left  the  scholar's  bench  for  the 
professor's  chair.  Four  years  later,  Luther 
took  another  scholastic  degree,  showing 
that  he  was  still  pursuing  his  studies.    Five 


186  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

years  more  were  required  for  Luther  to 
reach  clear  convictions  on  religion  and 
theology.  Paul  was  a  studeut  in  the  most 
celebrated  schools  in  Jerusalem  for  fifteen 
years.  If,  therefore,  you  do  not  seem  to 
have  that  mastery  of  tnith,  if  you  do  not 
find  yourself  the  intellectual  giant  which 
you  once  thought  you  might  become,  do 
not  blame  the  Lord,  do  not  depreciate  your 
talent,  until  you  have  devoted  as  many 
years  to  college  studies  as  did  Arminius, 
and  Calvin,  and  Augustine,  and  Wesley, 
and  Luther,  and  Paul.  If  you  would  do  a 
great  work  in  the  world,  fulfill  the  condi- 
tions by  which  men  outgrow  their  fellows." 
The  student  should  be  willing  to  begin  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ladder  and  work  upward. 
It  will  take  more  time,  but  it  will  yield 
rich  returns  and  bring  real  satisfaction. 

Again,  if  the  college  life  is  to  be  profit- 
able and  pleasant,  the  student  should 
refuse  to  enter  an  advanced  class  when  his 
general  culture  or  discipline  is  so  deficient 
as  to  render  it  difficult  to  make  reasonable 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  187 

progress  in  his  studies.  It  is  true  that 
the  entrance  examination  is  not  always 
a  fair  test  of  the  student's  capacity  or 
promise.  The  difficulty  cannot  be  cor- 
rected, and  study  be  made  a  pleasure, 
unless  a  student  himself  shows  frankness, 
and  is  willing  to  begin  where  every  step 
forward  is  thoroughly  understood. 

Among  the  personal  advantages  of  a  col- 
lege education  is  the  fact  that  it  helps  to 
emancipate  the  individual.  The  studies 
pursued  take  the  student  out  of  his  narrow 
self  and  his  present  environment,  and 
make  him  conversant  with  other  ages  and 
conditions,  where  he  finds  his  larger  self. 
The  personality  becomes  enlarged  and 
enriched  by  a  wider  vision  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  and  good  men  who  have 
lived  to  make  the  world  better.  The  best 
thoughts  of  the  past  and  the  present  are  at 
the  student's  command.  He  may  place 
himself  in  touch  with  all  ages  and  peoples, 
and  feel  that  he  is  contemporaneous  with 
the  best  spirit  and  thought  of  all  that  have 


188  COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA. 

gone  before.  Truth  thus  gathered  and 
stored  up  in  life  and  character  has  a 
wonderful  emancipating  power.  The  gate- 
way of  truth  is  always  thrown  open  to 
those  who  earnestly  knock  and  search  for 
her  hidden  treasures.  The  individual  in 
this  age,  more  than  in  any  other,  needs  the 
emancipating  power  of  truth  to  act  intelli- 
gently and  effectively  in  the  drama  of  life. 
A  college  education  likewise  tencls  to 
liberalize  the  individual  by  first  eliminating 
any  self-conceit,  or  inclination  to  rashness 
or  falsity,  and  to  build  up  firmness,  judg- 
ment, and  sincerity  of  character.  The  aim 
of  the  college  is  to  enable  the  student  to 
know  himself  and  his  mission  in  life.  He 
must  have  a  right  conception  of  self,  be- 
cause he  must  everywhere  live  and  act  with 
self.  He  owes  it  to  himself,  and  to  the 
race,  and  to  God,  to  make  the  most  of  life 
by  developing  his  God-given  faculties. 
God  had  a  purpose  in  creating  each  person, 
and  the  aim  of  each  individual  should  be  to 
live  worthy  of  his  origin,  by  finding  out 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  189 

what  God  wants  of  him,  and  then  training 
his  faculties  and  aptitudes  on  the  line  of 
this  purpose.  He  who  lives  in  willful 
ignorance  lives  beneath  the  privileges  and 
possibilities  of  a  human  being  created  in 
the  divine  image.  No  one  ought  to  be 
satisfied  with  anything  short  of  the  noblest 
and  best  possibilities  for  himself.  The 
majority  of  men  and  women  have  rich 
capacities,  and  their  natures  are  full  of  re- 
sources, but  these  are  not  always  called  out. 
Their  incipient  powers  often  need  some 
outside  impulse  or  suggestion  to  open  the 
chambers  of  the  soul  and  lead  them  to  dis- 
cover their  unconscious  capacities,  natural 
aptitudes,  and  untried  pov/ers. 

There  are  hidden  forces  in  our  nature 
and  in  life  about  us  of  which  we  little 
dream.  The  marvelous  forces  of  electricity 
are  being  applied  to  all  human  activities, 
and  are  imfolding  to  us  new  life  and  new 
possibilities.  We  are  told  that  there  are 
mightier  currents  in  the  atmosphere  above 
us   than    those    in   the    Mississippi  or  the 


190  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Amazon.  Likewise,  the  science  of  educa- 
tion exhibits  how  the  trained  powers  of 
man  reveal  unexpected  forces  and  capaci- 
ties, wliich  have  needed  only  the  touch  of 
truth  and  personality  to  awaken  a  higher 
life  and  to  impart  fresh  inspiration.  Now 
the  college  is  the  best  place  to  discover  our 
inborn  energies,  and  to  awaken  talent  and 
develop  greatness  through  the  influence  of 
men  and  books. 

The  student  is  also  liberalized  by  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  Ignorance  is  the 
synonym  for  narrowness  and  bigotry. 
Charity,  good-will,  and  human  brother- 
hood spring  from  a  kind  heart  and  an 
enlightened  imderstanding.  The  student, 
by  reason  of  years  of  study,  is  better  able 
to  see  truth  in  its  various  human  relations, 
and  personally  exhibit  a  breadth  of  charity 
unknown  to  those  of  narrow  vision.  His 
informed  judgment  and  quickened  con- 
science will  enable  him  to  act  generously 
and  to  suffer  courageously,  because  his  soul 
is  quietly  resting  in  the  bosom  of  truth. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  191 

A  college  education  likewise  helps  to 
fortify  the  individtial  for  complete  living. 
It  is  in  the  college  that  the  student  gains  a 
deeper  consciousness  of  his  own  ability, 
which  gives  independence  to  character. 
Through  genius,  or  by  dint  of  extraordinary 
application,  he  attains  an  intellectual 
ability  which  gives  him  the  right  to  wield 
his  trained  powers  to  uphold  the  truth  and 
work  for  the  general  good.  His  mental 
powers,  stores  of  knowledge,  and  humani- 
tarian sympathies  naturally  give  greater 
opportunity  for  influence  and  usefulness. 
The  judgment  and  reasoning  powers  have 
been  trained  so  that  the  student  goes  forth 
fortified  against  the  acceptance  of  plausible 
delusions  and  sophisms,  and  can  speak  with 
rightful  authority  as  to  the  facts  or  princi- 
ples he  has  observed  and  verified.  Truth 
and  personality,  thus  coupled  together,  face 
practical  duties  and  questions  with  the 
confident  strength  and  heroic  courage 
which  presage  victory. 

The  college-trained  man,  who  enters  his 


192  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

vocation  in  life  as  a  vigorous,  virtuous  and 
capable  being,  equipped  with  facts  and 
principles  as  the  propelling  power  of  life, 
will  wield  the  greatest  influence  for  good. 
He  will  be  fortified  for  the  battles  of  life, 
and  able  to  maintain  himself  in  honest 
independence. 

The  college  offers  another  safeguard  to 
the  student  by  conserving  scholarly  tastes 
and  habits.  The  student  who  acquires  a 
literary  taste  is  never  at  a  loss  to  know 
how  he  may  best  employ  his  time.  The 
baser  things  of  life  are  crowded  out  to  give 
place  to  nobler  thoughts  and  higher  aims. 
He  finds  his  real  happiness  in  cultivating 
the  inner  life  of  exalted  thought  and  gen- 
erous impulses.  He  realizes  that,  as  the 
body  demands  sustenance,  and  the  soul 
needs  "bread  from  heaven,"  so  the  mind 
must  have  intellectual  food,  which  gratifies 
a  taste  for  the  best  thoughts  of  the  best 
thinkers. 

The  student  is  also  helped  to  fortify  him- 
self with  a  noble   purpose.     He  is  led  to 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  193 

feel  that  he  has  a  mission  in  life,  and  the 
power  of  this  purpose  gives  an  elevation  to 
the  spirit  and  a  dignity  and  loftiness  to 
conduct.  More  than  anything  else,  it 
helps  to  strengthen  the  will  to  resist 
temptation  and  to  conform  to  the  highest 
moral  code.  By  far  too  many  of  our  youth 
are  drifting  through  life  without  any  par- 
ticular aim  or  purpose.  They  fail  to  act  in 
life  under  the  inspiration  of  a  devotion  to  a 
great  purpose.  Henry  D.  Thoreau  was 
right  when  he  wrote:  "The  fact  is,  you 
have  got  to  take  the  world  on  your 
shoulders,  like  Atlas,  and  put  along  with 
it.  You  will  do  this  for  an  idea's  sake,  and 
your  success  will  be  in  proportion  to  your 
devotion  to  ideas.  It  may  make  your  back 
ache  occasionally,  but  you  will  have  the 
satisfaction  of  hanging  it  or  twirling  it  to 
suit  yourself.  Cowards  suffer ;  heroes 
enjoy."  Any  worthy  calling  or  useful 
employment  will  lead  to  honor  and  a 
broader  development  of  self,  providing  that 
self  is  filled  with  an  absorbing  love  to  God, 


194  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

SO  that  it  will  be  the  unit  of  measure  for 
action  towards  a  neighbor  and  the  true 
base  line  from  which  his  rights  and  bound- 
aries are  surveyed  and  determined. 

The  college  helps  to  fortify  the  young  by 
imparting  good  impulses,  which  enable 
them  to  enter  upon  life  full  of  hope  and 
courage.  It  is  the  place  to  kindle  the  youth 
with  a  glow  of  enthusiasm,  and  impart  an 
inspiration  which  will  pervade  the  whole 
career  of  life.  It  speaks  for  the  immaterial 
and  unseen  forces  of  life,  and  supplies  the 
purest  motives  by  which  to  form  a  true 
and  beautiful  character. 

No  young  man  can  afford  to  enter  the 
wide-open  door  of  the  twentieth  century' 
without  a  harmonious  development  of  his 
faculties,  and  a  nature  sensitive  to  the  best 
and  holiest  influences,  and  responsive  to 
the  most  generous  impulses.  The  aspira- 
tions of  bright  minds  and  noble  natures 
can  never  excel  the  lofty  descriptions  of 
wisdom  by  the  wisest  of  men. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  195 

"  Happy  is  the  man  that  findeth  wisdom 
And  the  man  that  getteth  understanding, 
For  the  merchandise  of  it  is  better  than  silver, 
And  the  gain  thereof  than  fine  gold. 
She  is  more  precious  than  rubies, 
And  all  things  thou  canst  desire  are  not  to  be  com- 
pared unto  her. 
Length  of  days  is  in  her  right  hand, 
And  in  her  left  hand  riches  and  honor; 
Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
And  all  her  paths  are  peace." 


VII. 

THE   PRACTICAL  VAI.UR  OF  AN 
EDUCATION. 

Prince  Bismarck  is  reported  to  have  said 
that  in  Germany  "  there  were  ten  times  as 
many  people  educated  for  the  higher  walks 
as  there  were  places  to  fill."  Many  unin- 
formed persons  are  ready  to  make  similar 
statements  in  regard  to  this  country,  and 
believe  that  we  are  over-educating  the 
people.  Colonel  R.  G.  IngersoU  says: 
"You  have  no  idea  how  many  men  edu- 
cation spoils.  Colleges  are  institutions 
where  brickbats  are  polished  and  diamonds 
dimmed." 

The  public  schools  have  nearly  fifteen 
million  pupils  enrolled,  or  nearly  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  of  the  entire 
country.     In   1890,  the  four  hundred  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  197 

fifteen  colleges  had  118,581  students  in  all 
departments.  This  vast  army  of  youth 
receiving  instruction  is  regarded,  on  the 
part  of  some  people,  with  a  little  dis- 
quietude, and  it  is  believed  that  we  are 
likely  to  have  too  many  college-trained 
men  and  women.  There  are  certainly  no 
grounds  for  fear  if  we  take  education  to 
mean  the  broadest  culture  for  complete 
living. 

If  we  examine  more  closely  the  figures 
regarding  our  school  population,  we  will 
find  that,  of  the  large  number  of  pupils 
enrolled  in  1890,  there  was  only  "  an 
average  of  three  and  one-half  in  one  hun- 
dred pupils  studying  any  branches  above 
the  courses  of  study  laid  down  for  the  first 
eight  years;  that  is,  between  the  ages  of 
six  and  fourteen  years." 

Of  the  118,581  students  in  our  colleges, 
there  were  only  35,791  men  and  7,847  women 
in  the  collegiate  department,  making  a  total 
of  43,638  receiving  higher  instruction. 
The  remaining  number  were  in  the  pre- 


198  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

paratory,  normal,  and  professional  depart- 
ments. These  students  are  scattered  over 
a  great  nation,  and  if  we  take  students  in 
all  departments  they  represent  one  in  four 
hundred  and  fifty-five  of  the  population 
who  are  imder  superior  instniction,  and 
only  one  male  student  in  the  collegiate 
department  to  a  group  of  1,770  of  the 
population.  Many  of  those  enrolled  in 
college  do  not  complete  the  course  of 
study.  It  is  evident  that  the  number  of 
students  in  our  colleges  is  proportionately 
small,  considering  our  population  and  the 
requirements  of  our  age,  and  the  proportion 
of  graduates  is  even  smaller. 

The  practical  value  of  a  college  educa- 
tion is  seriously  questioned  by  many  good 
people  unacquainted  with  the  facts.  There 
is  abundant  evidence,  however,  which  goes 
to  prove  that  the  college  graduate  has 
better  chances  for  success  than  the  non- 
graduate. 

It  is  admitted  at  the  outset  that  some 
self-edii^ated  men  have  succeeded  without 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  199 

a  college  education,  while  some  college- 
trained  men  have  failed  in  active  life.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  colleges  do  not 
exist  to  make  ability,  but  to  develop  it. 
There  is  certainly  nothing  in  a  college  edu- 
cation which  unfits  men  for  the  practical 
duties  of  life.  Some  college  students  have 
meager  talent  to  begin  with,  and  a  college 
training  aims  to  help  them  make  the  most 
of  themselves. 

The  so-called  "self-made"  men  have 
undergone  the  severest  discipline.  By 
force  of  native  ability  and  energy,  they 
have  surmounted  difficulties  and  achieved 
success  which  merits  the  warmest  praise. 
There  is  scarcely  one  of  them  who  would 
not  have  availed  himself  of  a  collegiate  or 
technical  training  if  force  of  circumstances 
had  not  ordered  otherwise.  They  feel 
keenly  their  educational  disadvantages,  and 
believe  that  they  would  have  had  greater 
success  if  they  could  have  had  the  disci- 
plinary training  of  a  college  course.  Many 
feel  as  did  the  distinguished  orator,  Henry 


200  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Clay,  who,  when  in  Congressional  debate 
with  John  Randolph,  a  collegian,  is  said  to 
have  acknowledged,  with  tears,  the  dis- 
advantage he  suffered  from  not  having  had 
a  liberal  education. 

Washington,  Franklin,  and  Lincoln 
achieved  success  by  their  application,  but 
they  were  among  the  foremost  to  recognize 
the  value  of  a  college  training.  These 
examples  show  that  a  college  education  is 
not  always  essential  to  the  highest  service. 
The  only  just  claim  for  a  collegiate  train- 
ing is  that  it  increases  the  probabilities  of 
a  person's  success  in  life. 

The  criteria  of  comparison  of  the 
achievements  of  men  are  imperfect,  and 
the  measure  of  success  is  not  easily  calcu- 
lated. Great  men  are  not  those  who 
simply  climb  up  to  some  conspicuous  posi- 
tion. It  is  important  to  estimate  the 
quality  of  the  work  done,  as  well  as  the 
place  occupied.  A  greater  premium  should 
be  placed  upon  the  manhood  and  woman- 
hood put  into  the  work,  rather  than   the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  201 

place  filled.  The  teachings  of  Christ  show 
that  there  is  no  place  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God  for  a  place  hunter,  but  that  greatness 
is  measured  by  service.  In  the  competi- 
tion for  success  in  life,  it  is  often  necessary 
to  have  not  only  ability  and  worth,  but  the 
commercial  instinct  to  gain  public  recogni- 
tion. The  safe  rule  for  men  of  talent  to 
follow  is  to  make  themselves  conspicuously 
great  in  their  present  position,  and  make  it 
a  stepping-stone  for  something  greater. 
Charles  Kingsley  occupied,  in  England, 
an  apparently  humble  position  in  his 
rural  pastorate,  but  the  thinking  world 
has  felt  the  power  and  influence  of  his 
great  life. 

Bearing  in  mind  these  restrictions  in 
regard  to  the  idea  of  success,  we  offer  a 
few  suggestive  facts  to  show  the  number  of 
college  men  who  have  made  a  record  in 
the  annals  of  the  country. 

The  college  has  been  the  open  doorway 
to  positions  of  eminence  and  usefulness  in 
all  countries.     Lord    Macaulay,  in  one  of 


202  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

his  Speeches  in  Parliament,  said :  "Take 
the  Cambridge  Calendar,  or  take  the 
Oxford  Calendar  for  two  hundred  years; 
look  at  the  church,  the  parliament,  or  the 
bar,  and  it  has  always  been  the  case  that 
men  who  were  first  in  the  competition  of 
the  schools  have  been  first  in  the  competi- 
tion of  life." 

Speaking  of  the  advantages  of  a  uni- 
versity education  in  Germany,  Professor 
J.  M.  Hart  says:  "I  am  warranted  in  say- 
ing that  the  majority  of  the  members  of 
every  legislative  body  in  Germany,  and 
three-fourths  of  the  higher  office  holders, 
and  all  the  heads  of  departments,  are 
university  graduates,  or  have  at  least  taken 
a  partial  course — enough  to  catch  the 
university  spirit.  All  the  controlling  ele- 
ments of  German  national  life,  therefore, 
have  been  trained  to  sympathize  with  the 
freedom,  intellectual  and  individual,  which 
is  the  characteristic  of  the  university 
method." 

It  is  estimated  that  only  one-half  of  one 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  203 

per  cent,  of  the  male  population  in 
America  receives  a  college  education,  and 
yet  this  small  contingent  of  college  men 
furnishes  one-half  of  the  Senators  and  Vice- 
Presidents,  two-thirds  of  the  Presidents  and 
Secretaries  of  State,  and  seven-eighths  of 
the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States. 

Rev.  W.  F.  Crafts  says:  "I  have  ex- 
amined the  educational  records  of  the 
seventy  foremost  men  in  American  poli- 
tics— Cabinet  officers.  Senators,  Congress- 
men, and  Governors  of  national  reputation 
— and  I  find  that  thirty-seven  of  them  are 
college  graduates;  that  five  more  had  a 
part  of  the  college  course,  but  did  not 
graduate,  while  only  twenty-eight  did  not 
go  to  college  at  all.  As  not  more  than  one 
young  man  in  five  hundred  goes  to  college, 
and  as  this  one-five-hundredth  of  the 
young  men  furnishes  four-sevenths  of  our 
distinguished  public  officers,  it  appears 
that  a  collegian  has  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  times  as  many  chances  of  being  an 


SM  COLLEUILS  IN  AMERICA. 

eminent  Governor  or  Congressman  as 
other  young  men." 

The  college  graduate  generally  has  the 
pre-eminence  among  professional  men. 
The  proportion  of  successful  men  in  the 
professions  is  difficult  to  obtain,  but  if  a 
wide  reputation  be  regarded  as  the  cri- 
terion of  success,  the  college-bred  men 
take  the  lead. 

President  Thwing  has  carefully  esti- 
mated that,  of  the  15,142  most  conspicuous 
persons  of  our  American  history,  whose 
record  is  sketched  in  "Appleton's  Cyclo- 
paedia of  American  Biography,"  5,326  are 
college  men.  Among  the  latter,  the  per- 
centage found  in  the  various  callings  is  as 
follows :  "  Pioneers  and  explorers,  3.6  per 
cent. ;  artists,  10.4  per  cent. ;  inventors,  1 1 
per  cent.;  philanthropists,  16  per  cent; 
business  men,  17  per  cent.;  public  men,  18 
per  cent. ;  statesmen,  33  per  cent. ;  authors, 
37  per  cent.;  physicians,  46  per  cent; 
lawyers,  50  per  cent.;  clergymen,  58  per 
cent;  educators,  61   per  cent.;   scientists. 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  206 

63  per  cent."  He  further  estimates  that 
one  college  man  in  every  forty  attains 
recognition,  to  one  in  every  ten  thousand 
non-college  men ;  and  a  college-bred  man 
has  250  times  the  chance  of  attaining 
recognition  that  the  non-college  man  has. 

Dr.  Channing  says:  "The  grounds  of  a 
man's  culture  lie  in  his  nature,  and  not  in 
his  calling;"  and,  in  keeping  with  this,  the 
primary  aim  of  a  college  is  to  train  men. 
Yet,  it  should  be  the  door  of  approach  to 
all  professions.  The  studies  pursued  in 
college  are  the  foundations  of  the  practice 
of  the  various  professions,  and  a  young 
man  does  himself  and  his  profession  no 
credit  when  he  neglects  to  master  a  college 
course  because  of  his  impatience  to  rush 
into  a  professional  career,  and  thus  help  to 
swell  the  army  of  poorly-equipped  pro- 
fessional men. 

"To  practice  law  or  medicine  in 
France,"  says  Matthew  Arnold,  "a  person 
must  possess  a  diploma,  which  serves  as  a 
guarantee  to  the  public  that  such  a  person 


206  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

is  qualified  for  his  profession.  A  licentiate 
of  law  must  first  have  got  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Letters ;  have  then  attended 
two  years'  lectures  in  a  faculty  of  law,  aud 
undergone  two  examinations,  one  in  Jus- 
tinian's Code,  and  the  Codes  of  Civil 
Procedure  and  Criminal  Instruction.  The 
new  bachelor  must  then,  in  order  to 
become  licentiate,  follow  a  third  year's 
lectures  in  a  faculty  of  law;  undergo  two 
more  examinations,  the  first  on  the  Insti- 
tutes of  Justinian  again,  the  second  on  the 
Code  Napoleon,  the  Code  of  Commerce, 
and  Administrative  Law,  and  must  support 
a  thesis  on  questions  of  Roman  and  French 
Law.  To  be  a  physician  or  surgeon  in 
France,  a  man  must  have  a  diploma  of  a 
doctor  either  in  medicine  or  in  surgery. 
To  obtain  this,  he  must  have  attended  four 
years'  lectures  in  a  faculty  of  medicine,  and 
have  two  years'  practice  in  a  hospital. 
When  he  presents  himself  for  the  first 
year's  lectures,  he  must  produce  a  diploma 
of  Bachelor  of  Letters ;  when  for  the  third. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 


207 


that  of  a  Bachelor  of  Sciences,  a  certain 
portion  of  the  mathematics  generally  re- 
quired for  a  third  degree  being,  in  his  case, 
cut  away.  He  must  pass  eight  examina- 
tions, and  at  the  end  of  his  course  he  must 
support  a  thesis  before  his  faculty." 

Young  men  with  talent  and  ambition  are 
led  to  believe  that  the  professions  are  so 
over-crowded  that  there  is  very  little  oppor- 
tunity, in  these  days,  for  a  collegian  to 
succeed  in  a  professional  career.  A  com- 
parative study  of  the  number  of  students 
in  the  professional  schools  in  Germany, 
France,  and  the  United  States,  for  1890, 
reveals  the  following  facts: 


e 

«■ 

« 

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.Ci 

.<5 

•CJ 

■d 

H^ 

^ 

>S 

^ 

^^ 

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M 

5!^ 

^ 

?!^ 

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M   0 

bfl 

»<  S 

•2  § 

.tj 

5^ 

•S 

5  = 

s 

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tt 

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g 

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Germany,  .  .  . 

6,304 

13 

8,886 

18 

5.849 

12 

France,   .... 

5.152 

14 

6,455 

17 

lOI 

.   . 

United  States, 

4.518 

7 

14-884 

24 

7.013 

II 

208  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

We  glance  briefly  at  the  promises  which 
the  so-called  learned  professions  hold  out 
to  young  men.  The  opening  for  young 
men  in  the  legal  profession  has  many  diffi- 
culties, but  it  is  not  without  its  rewards. 
David  Dudley  Field  estimated  that  in  1893 
there  were  70,000  lawyers  in  the  United 
States.  If  we  estimate  the  population  of 
the  nation  at  70,000,000,  there  would  be 
one  lawyer  for  every  1,000  of  the  popula- 
tion. Assuming  that  three-fourths  of  the 
population  are  women,  children,  and  men 
under  age,  there  would  be  one  law>'er  to 
every  250  males  of  full  age  in  the  United 
States. 

Germany,  with  a  population  of  50,000,000, 
has  about  7,000  lawyers,  or  one  to  every 
7,000  persons.  In  the  State  of  New  York, 
with  a  population  of  6,000,000,  there  are 
11,000  lawyers,  or  one  for  every  545  of  the 
population.  Of  this  number  of  lawyers, 
there  is  a  great  proportion  engaged  in  real 
estate  business,  or  other  outside  matters, 
which  enables  them  to  secure   a   mainte- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  209 

nance.  Others  have  entered  the  law  because 
of  its  promise  of  social  position  and  honor. 

Aside  from  the  numbers  in  the  legal 
profession,  there  are  other  considerations 
in  the  problem.  The  people  of  to-day  are 
less  disposed  to  controversy,  and  avoid 
employing  lawyers  to  settle  disputes  and 
differences  in  court,  and  others  often  hesi- 
tate to  employ  a  lawyer  for  fear  of  being 
made  a  victim  of  the  rapacity  of  some  who 
have  brought  the  profession  into  disrepute. 
Again,  there  is  less  confusion  in  the  laws. 
They  are  being  collected,  condensed,  ar- 
ranged, and  simplified,  and  people  are 
coming  to  understand  the  codes.  Like- 
wise, the  courts  are  adopting  simpler  rules 
and  codes  of  civil  procedure,  which  give 
less  room  for  pettyfogging  hindrances  and 
delays  in  litigation.  A  lawyer  of  talent, 
with  the  aid  of  a  good  stenographer  and 
typewriter  and  other  advantages  of  to-day, 
can  do  double  and  treble  the  work  of  a 
lawyer  twenty-five  years  ago. 

Finally,  the   qualifications   of  a   lawyer 


210  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

never  reached  so  high  a  standard.  To 
attain  the  greatest  professional  success,  it 
is  indispensable  to  get  the  highest  develop- 
ment which  a  college  training  can  give. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  says  that  three-fifths 
of  the  lawyers  are  unfit  for  their  profession 
from  lack  of  ability  or  training.  The 
people  demand  abler  and  better  lawyers. 
The  requisite  qualities  of  a  good  lawyer 
to-day  are  not  only  knowledge  and  a  good 
judgment,  but  patience,  industry,  honesty, 
and  certain  other  aptitudes  for  his  work. 
He  must  be  ready  to  compete  with  a 
trained  and  talented  rival.  Special  train- 
ing is  of  great  value.  A  lawyer  of  several 
years'  standing  at  the  bar  in  New  York,  in 
a  recent  conversation,  remarked:  "I 
studied  law  in  a  lawyer's  office.  My 
brother,  here,  several  years  younger  than 
myself,  went  through  the  law  school,  and 
he  has  so  much  the  advantage  of  me,  in 
consequence  of  that  training,  in  the 
studious  habits  he  has  formed,  in  being 
brought  into  immediate  contact  with  the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  211 

best  legal  minds,  in  being  held  to  tlie 
highest  standards,  that  this  fall  I  shall 
enter  the  law  school  and  take  the  entire 
course." 

In  facing  these  difficulties,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  there  are  always  open- 
ings for  young  men  of  superior  qualifica- 
tions. Some  one  asked  Daniel  Webster 
whether  the  legal  profession  was  not  over- 
crowded, and  he  replied  that  there  was 
always  room  at  the  top.  An  ambitious 
young  man  of  ability  can  win  his  way  to 
the  front,  while  mediocrity  will  wait  for 
patronage.  There  is  jostling  and  crowding 
in  the  rear  ranks  of  every  profession.  It  is 
surprising  how  few  thoroughly  trained  men 
are  entering  the  profession.  In  1890  there 
were  in  the  various  law  schools  in  this 
country  4,518  students,  and  only  1,255  of 
these  had  degrees  in  letters  or  science.  In 
the  same  year,  1,514  were  graduated  in  the 
schools  of  law,  which  was  only  2.4  in  every 
100,000  of  the  population.  There  is  a 
demand    for   specialists.     The    field  is  en- 


212  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

larging  in  the  department  of  patent  law, 
railroad  law,  and  other  legal  specialties. 
The  business  transactions  of  this  age  are 
more  complex,  and  the  interests  more  im- 
portant. Corporation  controversies  need 
to  be  adjusted  by  those  who  thoroughly 
understand  the  principles  and  practices  of 
equity.  "I  was  a  teacher  of  law  to  young 
men  for  more  than  twenty  years,"  says 
Judge  Hoadley,  "and  have  never  seen  any 
reason  to  discourage  a  sober,  honest,  and 
industrious  yoimg  man  from  studying  law. 
He  needs,  first  of  all,  absolute  fidelity, 
trustworthiness,  and  integrity;  secondly, 
devotion  to  his  calling — in  other  words, 
industry  that  will  not  be  interfered  with 
by  the  distraction  of  society  or  pursuit  of 
politics.  If  he  be  honest  and  willing  to 
work,  he  will,  with  reasonable  intelligence, 
make  a  sufficient  success,  if  he  have  the 
patience  to  wait  for  success.  If,  in  addi- 
tion, he  have  what  I  may  call  the  lawyer's 
faculty — that  God-given  power  to  appre- 
ciate leading  principles  and  apply  them  to 


COLLEGES  TN  AMERICA.  213 

facts  as  they  arise,  coupled  with  ability  to 
reason,  and  to  state  results  cogently  and 
persuasively, — he  will  make  a  shining 
success." 

Again,  the  advantages  of  a  thorough 
medical  education  are  generally  recog- 
nized. The  sacred  work  of  ministering  to 
the  suffering  demands  the  most  thoroiigh 
instruction  in  medicine  and  methods  of 
treatment.  In  1890  there  were  15,404  stu- 
dents in  116  medical  schools  in  the  United 
States,  distributed  as  follows:  Regulars, 
13,521 ;  eclectics,  719;  homeopathists,  1,164. 
For  the  same  year  there  were  4,492  gradu- 
ates, or  7  in  every  100,000  of  the  popula- 
tion. Sixteen  of  the  medical  schools  had 
no  students  enrolled  who  had  previously 
obtained  a  literary  or  scientific  degree. 
Only  15  per  cent,  of  all  the  students 
matriculated  had  obtained  a  degree  before 
entering  the  medical  schools.  There  is  an 
evident  lack  of  thorough  preparation  in 
foundation  studies  on  the  part  of  the 
students.     The  medical  profession  is  sec- 


214  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Olid  to  none  in  importance,  and  the 
students  of  medicine  who  will  give  time 
to  the  more  extended  culture  of  a  college 
course  will  naturally  obtain  greater  skill 
and  a  broader  range  of  thought,  which  will 
contribute  to  their  eflSciency  as  practicing 
physicians. 

It  is  also  encouraging  to  know  that  the 
statistics  of  each  decade  indicate  that  an 
increasing  proportion  of  young  men  enter- 
ing the  ministry  have  received  a  college 
education.  There  were  112  theological 
schools  in  1890,  that  reported  7,013  students, 
of  whom  1,372  were  graduated,  or  two  for 
every  one  hundred  thousand  of  population. 
This  is  certainly  not  over-crowding. 

Of  the  students  in  theolog)'  enrolled  in 
the  schools  of  the  various  denominations 
in  1890,  the  proportion  was  as  follows: 
Baptists,  15.6  per  cent.;  Presbyterians,  15 
per  cent. ;  Methodists,  14.9  per  cent. ; 
Lutheran,  14.7  per  cent.;  Roman  Catholic, 
13.4  per  cent.;  Congregational,  9.7  per 
cent. ;  Christian,  5.5  per  cent. ;  Episcopal, 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  215 

4.7  per  cent. ;  Hebrew,  .5  per  cent.  Of  the 
total  enrollment,  7,013,  only  1,559  students 
had  received  degrees  in  letters  or  science. 
The  church  demands  educated  men  for  the 
pulpit.  A  call  to  the  ministry  in  these 
days  means  that  a  man  should  prepare  for 
the  work.  God  does  not  honor  the  sloth- 
ful, but  the  man  who  seeks  to  make  full 
proof  of  his  ministry.  This  is  done  when 
a  man  of  piety  takes  the  time  to  acquire 
mental  culture  and  reiinement,  and  to 
become  able  properly  to  guide  and  instruct 
the  people.  Such  ministers,  "thoroughly 
furnished  unto  every  good  word  and  work," 
honor  the  church,  and  strengthen  the  cause 
of  Christ.  Their  mental  endowments  com- 
mand respect  and  inspire  confidence. 
There  never  has  been  a  time  in  the 
Christian  ministry  when  there  was  such  a 
demand  as  now  for  ministers  with  minds 
cultivated  and  well  stored  with  knowledge, 
and  hearts  set  on  fire  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The   old   idea  that  a   college   graduate 
must  study  for  medicine,  law,  or  the  pulpit, 


210  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

has  attracted  a  large  number  of  them  into 
these  professions.  We  have  learned,  how- 
ever, that  these  professions  are  not  superior 
to  other  avenues  in  science  and  business. 
A  college  training  is  only  a  means  to  an 
end.  It  is  giving  a  man  fitness  for  work  of 
any  kind.  The  departments  opening  up 
to  college-trained  men  in  all  lines  of  work 
are  multiplying  and  expanding  with  each 
succeeding  year. 

The  future  is  bright  for  those  who  will 
take  up  statesmanship  as  a  profession. 
Nothing  has  a  more  important  bearing  on 
the  social  interests  of  the  people  than  the 
science  of  civil  government.  The  nation 
is  burdened  with  politicians,  but  intelligent 
Christian  statesmen  are  few.  The  intel- 
ligent people  of  this  nation  are  asking  for 
men  educated  in  history,  political  and 
social  science,  who,  with  clear  heads  and 
loyal  hearts,  will  use  their  ability  for  the 
welfare  of  the  public.  Good  citizens  have 
too  long  held  themselves  aloof  from  the 
great   concerns  of  our   organized   society. 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  217 

All  civic  matters  are  worthy  of  our  best 
thought  and  noblest  effort.  The  manage- 
ment of  our  political  and  social  interests 
has  too  often  been  usurped  by  politicians, 
who,  with  little  self-respect,  efficiency,  or 
character,  have  worked  not  for  the  public 
good,  but  on  the  principle  that  "to  the 
victors  belong  the  spoils."  Their  rapacity 
and  greed  have  led  them  to  sacrifice  prin- 
ciple to  party.  They  aim  to  manage  cau- 
cuses, pervert  elections,  override  the  wishes 
and  defy  the  moral  sense  of  the  people, 
and  corrupt  the  sources  of  national  life. 

We  have  come  to  ask  for  a  remedy.  Its 
answer  must  be  found  in  the  young  men 
whose  patriotism  will  lead  them  to  thor- 
oughly prepare  themselves  for  public  serv- 
ice and  make  statesmanship  a  profession. 
Along  with  a  broad  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  science  of  government 
they  should  cultivate  the  capacity  for 
effective  public  speech,  in  order  to  present 
political  and  social  themes  with  such 
power  as  to  guide   public  opinion  in  the 


218  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

right  direction.  They  must  be  willing  to 
carry  their  independent  convictions  into 
civil  aflfairs,  and  help  to  ennoble  the 
national  spirit,  and  purify  public  life,  and 
make  it  expressive  of  the  highest  intelli- 
gence and  the  best  moral  sentiments  of  the 
people.  Statesmanship  is  a  sacred  calling, 
and  the  people  are  ready  to  uphold  and 
encourage  young  men  who  will  dedicate 
themselves  to  this  exalted  work. 

It  is  an  omen  of  good  that  chairs  of 
political  and  social  science  are  being  estab- 
lished in  all  our  high  grade  colleges  to 
train  young  men  for  this  service.  They 
ought  to  prosper,  and  will.  Milton  saw 
this  need  years  ago,  and  said  :  "  The  next 
remove  must  be  to  the  study  of  politics,  to 
know  the  beginning,  end,  and  reasons  of 
political  societies;  that  they  may  not,  in  a 
dangerous  fit  of  the  commonwealth,  be  such 
poor,  shaken,  uncertain  reeds,  of  such  a 
tottering  conscience,  as  many  of  our  great 
counsellors  have  lately  shown  themselves, 
but  steadfast  pillars  of  the  state." 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  ?.\9 

Those  who  are  to  be  trained  for  this 
leadership,  and  expect  to  gain  a  strong 
hold  on  society,  should  be  taught  and 
trained  to  think  upon  complicated  ques- 
tions, and  able  not  only  to  frame  platforms 
and  shape  legislation,  but  to  grapple  with 
modern  social  problems,  and  lead  the  peo- 
ple to  nobler  action. 

Journalism  is  another  important  field  for 
talented  young  men  and  women.  The 
journalists  of  to-day  need  breadth  and  con- 
centration of  mind  to  meet  the  demands  of 
a  reading  and  thinking  people.  They  need 
a  knowledge  based  on  history,  literature, 
and  politics  in  order  to  report  speeches  cor- 
rectly and  to  discuss  living  questions  clear- 
ly, cogently,  and  with  a  broad  knowledge  of 
principles  and  facts.  The  press  wields  an 
influence  next  to  the  pulpit,  and  it  should 
be  consecrated  to  the  highest  service 
through  men  qualified  for  editorial  work. 

The  profession  of  teaching  has  justly 
assumed  a  position  in  this  country  second 
to  none  in  influence  and  power. 


220  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

There  are  15,000,000  pupils  in  the  public 
schools  of  this  country.  There  are  364,000 
teachers  employed  in  giving  instruction  to 
this  army  of  youth.  College  graduates  are 
rapidly  acquiring  a  control  of  the  high 
positions  in  these  schools.  The  superin- 
tendents, principals,  and  the  majority  of 
the  male  assistants  are  college  gpraduates. 
A  college  education  is  fast  becoming  an 
absolute  necessity  to  secure  a  position 
in  the  best  schools.  School  boards  will 
rarely  select  a  superintendent  or  a  principal 
of  the  high  school  who  has  not  received  a 
collegiate  education.  There  is  an  increas- 
ing demand  for  thoroughly  trained  men 
and  women  in  this  work.  Few  teachers 
can  hope  to  attain  prominence  in  their 
profession  without  these  advantages. 

There  is,  likewise,  a  rich  and  fruitful 
field  opening  up  to  those  who  receive  a 
careful  scientific  education.  The  applica- 
tion of  science  to  the  arts  and  industries  is 
rapidly  changfing  the  social  and  economic 
conditions  of  the  people.     We  are  unable 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  221 

to  conceive  of  the  ever-widening  field  in 
which  educated  men  will  be  needed  to  dis- 
cover new  methods  of  concentrating  and 
transmitting  electrical  and  mechanical 
power,  thereby  reducing  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction, and  adding  to  the  comfort  and 
happiness  of  the  human  family.  There  is 
a  growing  demand  for  men  versed  in  elec- 
trical science,  who  can  take  charge  of 
establishments  for  the  transmission  of 
power.  Civil  and  mechanical  engineers 
are  needed,  who  can  wisely  and  economic- 
ally construct  our  bridges  and  highways  of 
commerce,  and  who  can  apply  the  highest 
scientific  skill  to  all  the  constructive  enter- 
prises of  the  country. 

"The  Swiss  and  Germans  aver,"  says 
Matthew  Arnold,  "if  you  question  them  as 
to  the  benefit  they  have  received  from 
their  realscludoi  and  polytechniciinis^  that 
in  every  part  of  the  world  their  men  of 
business,  trained  in  these  schools,  are  beat- 
ing the  English  when  they  meet  on  equal 
terms  as  to  capital,  and  that  where  English 


222  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

capital,  as  so  often  happens,  is  superior,  the 
advantage  of  the  Swiss  or  German  in 
instruction  tends  more  and  more  to  bal- 
ance this  superiority.  I  was  lately  saying 
to  one  of  the  first  mathematicians  in 
England,  who  has  been  a  distinguished 
senior  wrangler  at  Cambridge  and  a  prac- 
tical mathematician  besides,  that  in  one 
department,  at  any  rate — that  of  mechanics 
and  engineering, — we  seemed,  in  spite  of 
the  absence  of  special  schools,  good  in- 
struction, and  the  idea  of  science,  to  get  on 
wonderfully  well.  *0u  the  contrary,' said 
he,  *we  get  on  wonderfully  ill.  Our  en- 
gineers have  no  real  scientific  instruction, 
and  we  let  them  learn  their  business  at  our 
expense  by  the  rule  of  thumb,  but  it  is  a 
ruinous  system  of  blunder  and  plunder.  A 
man  without  a  requisite  scientific  knowl- 
edge undertakes  to  build  a  difficult  bridge; 
he  builds  three  which  tumble  down,  and 
so  learns  how  to  build  a  fourth  which 
stands,  but  somebody  pays  for  the  three 
failures.     In    France    or    Switzerland    he 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  223 

would  not  have  been  suflfered  to  build  his 
first  bridge  until  he  had  satisfied  com- 
petent persons  that  he  knew  how  to  build 
it,  because  abroad  they  cannot  afford  our 
extravagance.' " 

We  find,  likewise,  that  our  industries  are 
demanding  men  trained  in  applied  chem- 
istry. The  application  of  the  principles  of 
chemical  philosophy  to  manufacturing 
steel,  chemical  fertilizers,  artificial  prepara- 
tion of  articles  of  food,  bleaching,  dyeing, 
and  printing  of  cloths,  offers  a  very  inviting 
field  of  study.  We  might  multiply  in- 
stances, but  enough  has  been  said  to 
suggest  to  our  minds  the  rich  possibilities 
before  educated  young  men  and  women. 
We  are  only  on  the  edge  of  the  future  of 
applied  science. 

We  need,  also,  to  carry  our  culture  and 
training  into  business  careers.  Business  is 
conducted  by  different  methods  than  in  the 
past.  The  management  affords  a  broader 
field  for  judgment  and  thought.  Many,  in 
the  future,  may  succeed  without  a  college 


224  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

education,  but  they  will  work  at  a  dis- 
advantage. The  chances  are  always  in 
favor  of  the  man  who  is  well  educated.  It 
is  a  common  belief  that  a  college  education 
unfits  a  man  for  practical  work.  He  often 
does  appear  at  a  disadvantage  on  leaving; 
college,  but,  other  things  being  equal,  he 
will  distance,  within  a  few  years,  the  man 
of  like  ability  who  has  not  been  rigorously 
trained  to  see,  think,  and  judge.  "  Experi- 
ence also  confirms  this  impression  by  the 
decisive  testimony  gathered  from  a  multi- 
tude of  witnesses,"  says  Noah  Porter,  "  that 
the  young  man  who  leaves  college  at 
twenty-one,  and  enters  a  coimting  or  sales- 
room, will,  at  twenty-three,  if  diligent  and 
devoted,  have  outstripped  in  business 
capacity  the  companion  who  entered  the 
same  position  at  sixteen  and  has  remained 
in  it  continuously,  while  in  his  general 
resources  of  intellect  and  culture  he  will  be 
greatly  his  superior." 

Germany  has  for  more  than  fifty  years 
insisted   that   her  youth   should   not  only 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  225 

have  the  foundation  of  a  general  education, 
but  that  opportunities  should  be  given  for 
higher  commercial  instruction.  This  su- 
perior education  and  training  is  producing 
its  legitimate  results.  Notwithstanding 
the  many  unfavorable  circumstances  which 
have  combined  to  prevent  her  growth  in 
commerce  and  industry,  Germany  has 
gained  an  amount  of  skill  and  experience 
in  mercantile  training  that  has  no  parallel 
in  France,  England,  or  America.  The 
advance  of  German  trade  is  due  to  the 
superior  fitness  of  the  Germans  through 
their  systematic  training  in  technical 
schools. 

M.  Ricard,  in  his  report  to  the  French 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  said:  "Every  in- 
telligent man  must  admit  that  the  invasion 
of  our  commerce  by  foreigners  is  due 
entirely  to  this  educational  inferiority. 
The  Germans  are  taking  oiir  places  every- 
where. They  even  supplant  tlie  English. 
Let  the  merchants  of  France  take  warning 
in    time.     German    commerce    has   better 


226  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

instruction,  better  discipline,  and  greater 
enterprise  than  French  commerce ;  it  is  at 
home  ever>^vhere ;  no  languages  are 
foreign  to  it ;  it  keeps  a  lookout  over  the 
world ;  it  is  not  ashamed  to  go  to  school, 
and  if  you  do  not  awake  from  your 
letharg^^,  it  will  annihilate  you." 

The  London  Chamber  of  Commerce 
found,  on  examination,  that  ninety-nine 
per  cent,  of  Englishmen  who  take  to  com- 
mercial life  are  unable  to  correspond  in 
any  foreign  language.  The  comparative 
disadvantage,  on  all  commercial  lines,  of 
England  with  Gennany,  is  owing  to  "a 
higher  average  of  mercantile  intelligence 
all  round."  It  is  not  to  be  alleged  that  the 
English  are  mentally  inferior  to  the  Ger- 
mans, but,  as  Professor  W.  G.  Blackie  said 
before  the  Educational  Institute  of  Scot- 
land: "The  question  is  solely  an  intel- 
lectual one,  and  must  be  solved  through 
educational  means.  It  assumes  the  aspect 
of  an  educational  duel  between  the  mer- 
cantile population  of  this  country  and  their 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  227 

competitors  on  the  continent,  in  which  the 
mastery  is  sure  to  remain  with  those  who 
are  the  most  fully  equipped  for  the 
contest." 

The  report  on  the  superior  instruction  of 
Antwerp  contains  the  following  words : 
"  Men  have  seemed  to  imagine  that,  in 
order  to  prosper,  commerce  and  industry 
have  only  required  money  and  favorable 
treaties  of  commerce.  Governments  have 
occupied  themselves  with  the  material  side 
of  the  future  merchant,  without  taking 
care  to  develop  his  intellectual  capacity, 
which  is,  indeed,  the  spirit  of  his  opera- 
tions, without  taking  care  to  improve  his 
intelligence,  which  is  the  germ  of  enter- 
prise in  the  commercial  life  of  a  nation." 

Young  men  and  women  are  often  led  to 
believe  that  there  is  no  chance  for  them  to 
have  a  successful  career,  and  so  fail  to 
attend  college  and  develop  their  capacity, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  often  become  rest- 
less and  idle.  But  this  is  no  age  for 
triflers.     The  world  is  in  need  oi  educated 


228  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

men  in  all  of  the  higher  walks  of  life. 
There  is  abundant  room  for  men  of  ability 
and  culture  who  can  bring  things  to  pass. 
The  fact  that  earnest,  talented,  and  conse- 
crated men  and  women  are  overworked  in 
their  professions  shows  that  there  is  a 
place  in  the  front  ranks  of  all  useful 
professions  and  vocations. 

The  door  of  the  twentieth  century  swings 
open  and  invites  the  ambitious  men  and 
women  of  talent  and  consecration  to 
the  service  of  humanity,  and  extends 
the  widest  opportunities  and  the  most 
exalted  privileges  ever  vouchsafed  to  man. 
Will  the  youth  of  the  land  be  ready  to 
enter  ? 


VIIT. 

OUR  INDEBTEDNESS  TO  COLLEGES. 

The  x^merican  colleges  hold  the  most 
intimate  relation  to  the  whole  community, 
for  which  they  have  done  a  vast  work. 
They  rightly  enjoy  the  confidence  and 
esteem  of  the  American  people,  since  they 
have  infused  into  society  some  of  the  most 
purifying  and  life-giving  influences.  Many 
of  the  first  settlers  were  among  the  best 
educated  men  of  England,  and  they  recog- 
nized that  education  was  the  corner-stone 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  Pembroke, 
Delaware,  William  Penn,  Roger  Williams, 
the  Winthrops,  and  a  large  number  of 
worthy  men  who  settled  in  the  early 
colonies  came  from  the  classical  shades  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  retained  the 
educational   predilections   which   were    so 


230  COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA. 

firmly  established  in  their  mother  country. 
The  spirit  and  principles  of  our  wise  and 
godly  ancestry  were  early  introduced  into 
the  colleges,  which  have  conserved  and 
perpetuated  them  down  to  the  present  day. 

The  American  people  owe  much  to  the 
colleges  for  training  capable  and  worthy 
men  to  fill  the  posts  of  honor  and  power  in 
the  nation.  The  men  who  have  given 
shape  and  character  to  the  early  political 
organizations  and  spirit  have  been  mostly 
collegians. 

These  institutions  for  higher  education 
have  trained  men  in  history,  philosophy, 
and  the  principles  of  government,  who 
have  become  the  right  hand  of  strength  to 
the  nation.  Their  extensive  knowledge 
and  thoroughly  disciplined  and  compre- 
hensive minds  have  been  largely  instru- 
mental in  perfecting  our  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  in  elevating  the  nation  to  the 
rank  of  one  of  the  greatest  political 
powers. 

The  colleges  have  trained  the  intellect 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  231 

and  conscience  of  the  majority  of  students 
so  that  they  have  gone  forth  as  leaders,  and 
have  exerted  a  prodigious  influence  among 
the  people  for  right  thinking  and  right 
acting.  They  have  not  only  disciplined 
the  powers  of  the  masterly  statesmen,  but 
have  fostered  among  them  a  sense  of 
fraternity  concerning  our  civil  destinies. 
The  students  that  have  been  gathered  into 
the  colleges  from  the  different  portions  of 
the  nation  have  become  imbued  with  one 
sentiment,  and  entered  upon  public  life 
linked  together  by  the  bonds  of  a  common 
intellectual  life  and  strong  friendships, 
which  have  resulted  favorably  for  the 
republic. 

Some  of  the  colonial  colleges  have  richly 
repaid  the  nation  for  all  the  effort  and 
sacrifice  it  cost  to  found  them.  William 
and  Mar}''  College  has  sent  out  twenty  or 
more  members  of  Congress,  fifteen  United 
States  Senators,  seventeen  Governors, 
thirty-seven  Judges,  a  Lieutenant  General 
and  other  high  officers  of  the  Army,  two 


232  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Commodores  to  the  Navy,  twelve  profess- 
ors, seven  Cabinet  officers;  the  chief 
draughtsman  and  author  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, Edmund  Randolph;  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  Chief  Justices,  John  Marshall, 
and  three  Presidents  of  the  United  States. 

Harvard  has  furnished  two  Presidents, 
one  Vice  President,  fifteen  Cabinet  officers, 
twenty  Foreign  Ministers,  twenty-nine 
United  States  Senators,  one  hundred  and 
four  Congressmen,  and  nineteen  Gov- 
ernors. 

Princeton  has  beaten  the  Harvard  record 
in  everything  except  the  first  and  fourth 
items.  It  has  given  to  the  country  one 
President,  two  Vice  Presidents,  nineteen 
Cabinet  officers,  nineteen  Foreign  Min- 
isters, fifty-five  United  States  Senators, 
one  hundred  and  forty-two  Congressmen, 
and  thirty-five  Governors. 

The  collegians  have  ranked  among  the 
principal  leaders  in  the  political  life  of  the 
nation.  Fifty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  chief 
national  offices  have  been  filled  by  them. 


COLLECF.S  TN  AMF.RTCA.  283 

Thomas  Jefferson,  author  of  the  "Declara- 
tion of  Independence,"  was  a  college  man. 
Hamilton,  IMadison,  and  Jay,  who  took 
such  a  prominent  part  in  the  framing  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  were 
college-trained  men.  Three-fourths  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
were  college  graduates.  These  and  other 
superior  men  in  public  life,  at  this  period, 
were  educated  and  possessed  a  scholarship 
that  was  in  compass  and  variety  more 
than  abreast  with  the  learning  of  the  time. 
George  Washington  was  a  self-made  man, 
but  he  had  recourse  to  America's  greatest 
statesman,  Alexander  Hamilton,  a  graduate 
of  Columbia  College,  in  preparing  his  state 
papers. 

The  counsellors  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
during  the  stormy  days  of  the  Rebellion, 
were  men  of  trained  minds.  "All  the 
leaders,"  says  Professor  S.  N.  Fellow,  "in 
that  Cabinet  were  college-trained  men. 
William  H.  Seward,  the  shrewdest  diplo- 
matist,   who    held    other    nations   at   bay 


234  rOI  I.KCES  IN  AMERICA. 

until  the  Rebellion  was  throttled ;  Salmon 
P.  Chase,  whose  fertile  brain  developed  a 
financial  system  by  which  our  nation  was 
saved  from  national  bankniptcy,  and  made 
national  bonds  as  good  as  the  gold  in 
foreign  markets;  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  that 
man  of  iron,  who  organized  a  million  of 
raw  recruits  into  an  army  equal  to  any  in 
the  world;  Gideon  Welles,  who,  almost 
from  nothing,  created  a  navy  sufficient  for 
our  needs, — each  of  these,  and  every  other 
member  of  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  save  one, 
was  a  college  graduate.  So,  also,  in  the 
army.  It  was  not  until  thoroughly  trained 
and  disciplined  men  filled  the  chief  places 
in  command  that  tlie  Federal  forces  over- 
whelmed and  destroyed  the  Rebellion.  We 
repeat,  the  law  is,  and  it  is  believed  to  be 
universal,  that  the  higher  the  rank  or 
position,  the  larger  per  cent,  of  college 
graduates  are  found  in  it." 

Education  was  an  important  factor  in 
deciding  the  issues  of  our  Civil  War. 
Thoroughly  trained  and   disciplined   men 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERLCA.  2.^5 

filled  the  chief  places  in  command  in  the 
Federal  Army.  The  Northern  soldiers 
were  better  edncated  than  those  of  the 
South.  It  has  been  said  that  "in  the 
German  Army  that  fought  the  battles  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  war,  those  who  could 
neither  read  nor  write  amounted  to  only 
3.8  per  cent.,  while  in  the  French  Army 
the  number  amounted  to  30.4  per  cent." 
According  to  the  admission  of  the  defeated, 
the  universities  conquered  at  Sedan.  Per- 
haps it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
great  number  of  colleges  in  the  Northern 
vStates  conquered  at  Appomattox. 

A  large  per  cent,  of  the  leaders  in  the 
American  Congress,  during  the  trying 
period  of  our  country's  history  from  i860 
to  1870,  were  either  college  graduates  or 
had  taken  a  partial  course  in  college  and 
gained  its  inspiration. 

,The  college  graduates  have  furnished 
33  per  cent,  of  the  Congressmen,  46  per 
cent,  of  the  Senators,  50  per  cent,  of  the 
Vice  Presidents,  65  per  cent,  of  the  Presi- 


236  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

dents,  'jT^  per  cent,  of  the  Associate  Judges, 
and  83  per  cent,  of  the  Chief  Justices  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

Again,  we  are  especially  indebted  to  the 
colleges  for  encouraging  private  and  public 
schools,  through  which  we  have  become  an 
enlightened  people.  It  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  indebtedness  of  popular  to 
collegiate  education.  There  is  an  intimate 
and  vital  relation  between  the  college  and 
the  public  schools,  which  differ  not  in 
kind,  but  only  in  the  degree  of  instruction. 
"The  success  and  usefulness  of  common 
schools,"  says  Professor  W.  S.  Tyler,  "is 
exactly  proportioned  to  the  popularity  and 
prosperity  of  the  colleges,  and  whatever  is 
done  for  or  against  the  one  is  sure  to  react, 
with  equal  force  and  similar  results,  upon 
the  other." 

The  colleges  have  been  foremost  in  ad- 
vocating that  the  education  of  the  youth 
should  not  be  left  to  those  of  meager 
attainments  and  narrow  sympathies.  They 
have  maintained  that,  in  order  to  reap  the 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  'IZl 

best  advantages  of  our  public  schools,  it 
is  important  to  have  wise,  competent, 
Christian  men  and  women  to  give  instruc- 
tion, as  well  as  to  prepare  text-books,  and 
to  increase  the  appliances  employed  in 
teaching. 

It  has  been  a  difficult  task  to  bring 
our  public  school  system  to  the  present 
condition  of  progress.  The  work  has  pro- 
ceeded slowly  and  steadily  under  the 
example  and  inspiration  of  great  educa- 
tional centers.  The  excellence  and  useful- 
ness of  our  school  system  has  advanced 
just  in  proportion  to  the  culture  and  ability 
of  the  teachers.  A  collegiate  education 
has  always  tended  to  foster  and  encourage 
higher  standards  of  scholarship  among 
teachers,  and  this  influence  has  been 
diffused  into  the  public  school  system. 
President  Charles  W.  Super  truthfully 
says:  "  That  which  leads  up  to  the  highest 
must  always  be  supervised  and  directed  by 
that  which  is  at  the  top.  A  system  of 
elementary  and  secondary  education  which 


238  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

does  not  culminate  in  the  university,  and 
make  that  the  goal  towards  which  its 
efforts  are  directed,  is  an  absurdity.  There 
must  be  good  teachers  before  there  can  be 
good  schools,  and  good  teachers  can  only 
be  formed  in  institutions  that  are  chiefly 
concerned  with  knowledge  at  first  hand. 
This  has  been  a  recognized  principle  in 
Germany  for  half  a  century,  or  longer;  is 
now  almost  universally  admitted  in  France, 
and  is  the  goal  toward  which  the  whole 
civilized  world  is  rapidly  moving." 

The  efficiency  of  our  public  schools  has 
been  felt  in  every  department  of  our  social 
organization.  They  have  been  a  strong 
bulwark  against  the  influences  of  a  raw 
and  uninstructed  foreign  population,  who, 
like  a  tidal  wave,  have  flooded  our  shores. 
Some  of  these  have  not  only  been  ignorant 
and  infidel,  but  filled  witli  monarchical 
ideas  and  un-American  sentiment.  The 
public  schools  have  brought  their  children 
into  accord  with  our  American  institutions, 
and  developed  intelligent  patriotism.   They 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  239 

have  taught  the  youth  common  rights  and 
privileges,  and  helped  to  generate  a  union 
of  sympathy  and  sentiment  which  leads  to 
the  consolidation  of  our  society  into  a 
homogeneous  body. 

The  colleges,  working  through  the  pub- 
lic school  teachers,  have  likewise  helped  to 
educate  the  millions  of  the  manumitted  and 
enfranchised  colored  people,  and  to  break 
up  sectionalism,  allay  party  strife,  and 
make  for  the  peace,  prosperity,  and  unity 
of  the  nation.  Our  political  safety  has 
called  for  a  wise  and  vigorous  effort  to 
educate  the  masses  and  to  assimilate  the 
heterogeneous  elements  into  our  body 
politic.  The  public  schools  and  colleges, 
with  their  interdependence,  have  in  a  great 
measure  met  the  demand,  and  given  us  a 
legacy  of  peace,  prosperity,  and  intelli- 
gence enjoyed  by  all  the  people. 

Likewise,  the  colleges  have  contributed 
largely  to  the  general  prosperity  and  ma- 
terial progress  of  society.  They  are  the 
real  centers  of  power  of  this  enterprising 


240  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

and  progressive  age.  "The  revival  of 
learning  and  the  epoch  of  discover\'  ush- 
ered in  the  epoch  of  natural  science,  which 
has  made  possible  the  epoch  of  useful 
inventions." 

College-trained  men  are  the  most  prac- 
tical and  useful  of  men.  They  have  been 
the  creators  of  material  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. Their  discoveries  and  inventions 
have  revolutionized  business  and  social 
life.  Every  department  of  life  is  teeming 
with  the  fruits  of  science  and  philosophy, 
which  have  been  largely  built  up  by 
colleges  and  college-trained  men.  Bacon, 
Newton  and  Locke  were  sons  of  the 
English  universities.  Watt  and  Fulton 
associated  with  college  men,  and  "  derived 
from  them  the  principles  of  science  which 
they  applied  in  the  development  of  the 
steam  engine  and  steam  navigation.  Pro- 
fessor Morse,  the  inventor  of  the  electric 
telegraph,  was  not  only  a  college  graduate 
and  professor,  but  made  his  great  experi- 
ments  within   the  walls  of  a  university." 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  241 

Likewise,  many  other  scientists,  who  have 
demonstrated  the  limitless  possibilities  of 
steam  and  electricity,  and  other  valuable 
discoveries  and  inventions,  were  either 
trained  in  the  colleges  or  received  from 
them  the  working  principles  which  were 
essential  to  their  success.  These  human 
inventions  are  of  priceless  value  to  the 
people.  The  steam  engine  has  contributed 
greatly  to  human  welfare.  It  represents, 
in  the  United  States  alone,  20,000,000 
horse  power  in  the  form  of  locomotives,  or 
the  steam  power  of  300  horses  for  each 
thousand  inhabitants.  Besides  all  this, 
6,000,000  horse  power  in  stationary  steam 
engines  manufacture  goods  for  us.  They 
give  the  vast  force  which  toils  for  us,  and 
the  laborer  furnishes  only  the  guiding 
power.  These  inventions  have  enabled  us 
to  increase  our  wealth  at  the  rate  of 
$2,000,000,000  a  year  during  the  last 
decade,  and  helped  to  make  our  people 
sharers  in  the  products  of  the  world,  and 
in  all  the  blessings  of  civilization. 


242  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Professor  Huxley  was  right  when  he 
said:  "If  the  nation  could  purchase  a 
potential  Watt,  or  Davy,  or  Faraday,  at 
a  cost  of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  down, 
he  would  be  dirt  cheap  at  that  money." 
Fifty-two  of  the  inventions  now  prized  by 
the  civilized  world  were  made  in  Germany, 
and  within  the  influence  of  her  uni- 
versities. All  these  discoveries  are  open- 
ing the  doors  for  more  wonderful  dis- 
closures. All  the  great  industries  of  the 
country  require  men  of  trained  minds  and 
directive  intelligence  to  organize  and  con- 
trol them,  and  the  colleges  are  recognized 
agencies  to  help  produce  them. 

Our  literature  is  also  largely  the  fruit  of 
college  labor  and  tastes.  The  colleges,  as 
centers  of  intellectual  life,  have  fostered 
literary  tastes  in  those  who  have  built  up 
and  enriched  literature.  Their  libraries 
and  lectures  have  gathered  together  men 
of  literary  aims  and  ambitions,  so  that  the 
seat  of  the  college  has  become  the  home 
of  new  and   grand   ideas,  which   at  once 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  243 

encourage  literature  aud  science.  This 
congenial  intellectual  atmosphere  has  in- 
cited many  a  young  person  to  project 
noble  literary  plans. 

The  majority  of  great  writers  have  spent 
years  at  the  university.  Lord  Bacon  out- 
lined his  gigantic  plan  for  "the  Instaura- 
tion  of  the  Sciences"  during  the  four  years 
spent  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 
Milton  laid  the  foundations  of  his  classical 
scholarship  in  the  university.  "Newton 
was  matured  in  academic  discipline,  a 
fellow  in  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and 
a  professor  of  mathematics.  He  passed 
fifteen  years  of  his  life  in  the  cloisters  of  a 
college,  and  solved  the  problems  of  the 
universe  from  the  turret  over  Trinity  gate- 
way." 

The  literary  influences  of  our  colleges 
were  early  manifest  in  our  nation.  The 
scholarship,  classical  taste,  and  fine  literary 
style  of  the  superior  men  in  public  life  led 
the  Rarl  of  Chatham,  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  in  1775,  to  pay   "a  tribute  of  elo- 


244  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

quent  homage  to  the  intellectual  force,  the 
symmetry,  and  the  decorum  of  the  state 
papers  recently  transmitted  from  America, 
which  was  virtually  an  announcement  that 
America  had  become  an  integral  part  of 
the  civilized  world,  and  a  member  of  the 
republic  of  letters." 

The  colleges  have  nourished  the  con- 
ditions out  of  which  a  pure,  classical 
literature  may  grow.  Such  men  as  Edward 
T.  Channing,  of  Harvard,  and  Webster, 
Worcester  and  Goodrich,  of  Yale,  have 
performed  an  inestimable  service  in  pre- 
paring the  way  for  our  mother  tongue  to 
be  spoken  in  its  purity. 

In  the  line  of  history,  the  American 
colleges  have  given  the  nation  such  men 
as  Bancroft,  Parkman,  Palfrey,  Prescott, 
Motley,  Winthrop  and  Adams.  In  the 
sciences,  there  are  Dana,  Gray,  Cooke, 
Walker,  Porter,  Woolsey  and  Agassiz.  In 
law  and  political  science,  we  have  Hamil- 
ton, Jefferson,  Adams,  Evarts,  Webster, 
Chase,    Choate,     Everett     and     Sumner. 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  245 

These  men  have  been  the  true  architects 
of  the  state.  The  pulpit  is  represented  by 
such  men  as  Mather,  Edwards,  Dwight, 
StorrSj  Warren,  Beecher,  Tahnage,  Cook, 
Thomson  and  Brooks. 

Literary  genius  has  been  displayed  by 
men  like  lyongfellow,  Bryant,  Lowell, 
Holmes,  Hawthorne,  Mitchell,  Holland, 
Emerson  and  a  host  of  lights  scarcely 
less  brilliant.  These  men,  who  have 
written  in  a  terse  and  graphic  style,  re- 
ceived their  stimulus  and  training  in 
college,  and  are  among  the  bright  ex- 
amples of  classical  scholarship,  and  the 
results  of  their  genius  have  enriched  char- 
acter and  enlightened  the  world. 

The  periodical  literature  reflects  the 
prevailing  ideas,  sentiments  and  spirit  of 
the  American  people.  The  college-trained 
men  have  been  especially  quick  to  utilize 
this  throne  of  power  to  guide  the  public 
mind  to  right  principles  and  inspiring 
motives.  The  colleges  must  continue  to 
be   fountains  whence   shall    flow  a  pure. 


246  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

earnest,  and  trnthful  literatnre,  which  will, 
in  a  great  measure,  determine  the  destiny 
of  the  present  and  future  generations. 

We  are  especially  indebted  to  the  col- 
leges for  the  maintenance  of  the  ascend- 
ency of  the  moral  and  religious  principles 
which  have  done  so  much  in  unfolding 
and  shaping  our  national  life.  The  relig- 
ious sentiment  has  been  the  controlling 
spirit  of  the  nation,  and  our  patriotism  has 
issued  from  a  meditative  and  religious 
temper,  which  the  colleges  have  been  fore- 
most in  fostering.  Nearly  all  the  great 
religious  and  refonnatory  movements  have 
proceeded  from  the  colleges  and  universi- 
ties, whereby  g^eat  good  has  come  to 
society.  "  It  was  through  the  interchange 
of  students  between  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Prague  that  the  teachings  of 
Wycliff  passed  over  into  Bohemia  and 
issued  in  the  splendid  work  of  Huss.  It 
was  from  college  students  of  Florence  that 
Colet,  and  Erasmus,  and  More  caught 
somewhat  of  the  spirit  of  Savonarola,  and 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERLCA.  247 

felt  the  power  of  truths  that  emerged  in 
the  Italian  Renaissance,  and  made  them 
contribute  so  grandly  to  religious  liberty  in 
England.  It  was  in  the  presence  of  the 
college  students  of  Germany  that  IVIartin 
Luther  nailed  his  thesis  to  the  doors,  and 
burned  the  papal  bull,  and  lit  the  watch- 
fire  of  the  Reformation  that  has  awaked  an 
answering  brightness  from  ten  thousand 
hills.  It  was  from  a  little  circle  of  Oxford 
students  that  God  led  forth  Wesley  and 
Whitfield  to  shake  the  mighty  pillars  of 
unbelief  in  the  eighteenth  century." 

President  William  F.  Warren  says:  "By 
means  of  the  great  religious  movement 
called  Puritanism,  the  English  University 
of  Cambridge  shaped,  for  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
life  of  New  England.  Emmanuel  College, 
the  one  in  which  John  Harvard,  Thomas 
Hooker,  John  Cotton,  and  many  of  the 
early  New  England  leaders  were  educated, 
was  founded  for  the  express  purpose  of 
providing  a  nursery  for  the  propagation  of 


248  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Puritan  principles.  Never  were  the  hopes 
of  founders  more  fruitfully  fulfilled.  The 
New  World,  then  just  opening,  furnished  a 
field  of  unimagined  extent,  with  motives 
and  social  forces  and  ranges  of  opportunity 
which  even  yet  are  a  mar\'el.  By  founding 
a  new  England  beyond  the  sea,  and  plant- 
ing a  new  Emmanuel  College  in  a  new 
Cambridge,  English  Puritanism  was  en- 
abled to  transcend  itself,  to  exchange  the 
attitude  of  a  stniggliug  ecclesiastical  party 
for  that  of  an  Established  Church.  It 
gained  the  opportunity  to  originate  a  new 
social  order,  and  to  impress  itself  upon  a 
new  age,  built  upon  new  and  democratic 
principles.  The  initial  and  fundamental 
covenant  out  of  which  grew  the  chief  of  all 
New  England  colonies — that  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay — was  formulated  and  signed  in 
ancient  Cambridge.  In  fact,  in  American 
Puritanishi,  with  its  social,  civil,  and  relig- 
ious results,  may  be  seen  the  high-water 
mark  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  influ- 
ence which,  in  the  whole  course  of  history, 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  249 

have  thus  far  proceeded  from  the  banks  of 
the  Cam."  The  church,  in  harmony  with 
the  genius  of  Christianity,  has  always 
fostered  education.  It  assumes  to  guard 
Christianity  by  directing  education  as  one 
of  its  most  powerful  of  organized  forces. 

The  existence  and  support  of  colleges  are 
largely  due  to  the  Christian  Church.  They 
are  the  offspring  of  a  dominant  desire  to 
promote  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  make 
them  powerful  agencies  for  a  positive  and 
aggressive  Christianity.  In  the  middle 
ages  the  pious  princes,  Charlemagne  and 
Alfred,  established  schools  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  clergy.  Oxford,  Cambridge 
and  Glasgow  Universities  were  established 
and  fostered  by  the  church  to  educate 
more  fully  the  clergy.  The  founders  of 
Harvard  College  thus  described  their 
motive:  "Dreading  to  leave  an  illiterate 
ministry  to  the  churches,  when  our  minis- 
ters shall  lie  in  the  dust."  Yale  College 
was  founded  by  preachers  for  a  like  pur- 
pose.    Princeton  College  was  founded  "  to 


250  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

supply  the  clmrcli  with  learned  and  able 
preachers  of  the  Word."  The  fact  is  that 
prior  to  the  eighteenth  centur}'  there  was 
no  university  founded  save  those  estab- 
lished for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of 
the  church. 

The  chosen  mottoes  of  the  colleges  indi- 
cate the  spirit  of  the  founders.  That  of 
Oxford  is,  "The  Lord  is  My  Light;"  Har- 
vard, "Christ  and  the  Church;"  Yale, 
"Light  and  Truth."  Eighty-three  per 
cent,  of  the  colleges  in  our  land  were 
founded  by  Christian  philanthropy,  and 
are  under  denominational  control.  The 
spirit  of  infidelity  does  not  lead  men  to 
make  the  sacrifices  to  found  colleges. 
Perhaps  there  is  not  more  than  one  in 
our  nation. 

The  majority  of  colleges  are  positively 
religious.  According  to  Dr.  Dorchester, 
even  Harvard,  the  oldest  college  in  the 
United  States,  that  wishes  to  be  understood 
as  non-denominational,  has  been,  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  "under  the  direction 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  251 

of  a  Board  of  Fellows,  all  of  whom  liave 
been  Unitarians,  except  one  elected  within 
a  few  years;  and,  besides,  the  theological 
school  of  Harvard  College  is  usually  men- 
tioned in  the  Unitarian  Year  Book  as  a 
Unitarian  institution."  Iceland  Stanford 
University  is  one  of  the  youngest  and 
richest  of  our  American  colleges.  The 
regulations  declare  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the 
trustees  "to  prohibit  sectarian  instruction, 
but  to  have  taught  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  the  existence  of  an  all-wise  and 
benevolent  Creator,  and  that  obedience  to 
His  laws  is  the  highest  duty  of  man." 

Both  of  these  colleges,  reported  as  "non- 
sectarian,"  generously  provide  buildings 
and  pastors  for  religious  services  and 
lectures.  Dr.  Dorchester  believes  that 
one-third  of  the  State  universities  are 
under  the  presidency  of  evangelical  di- 
vines. He  further  states  that  "in  1830  the 
students  in  the  denominational  colleges 
were  76.6  per  cent,  of  the  whole;  in  1884, 
they  were  79.2  per  cent." 


252  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

All  the  foregoiug  facts  show  the  strong 
and  enduring  progress  of  Christianity  in 
the  UnitedStates ;  that  it  is  "  identified  with 
the  highest  educational  culture  of  the  age ; 
that  the  denominational  institutions  are 
incalculably  leading  in  number  and  stu- 
dents all  the  undenominational  colleges, 
and  that  the  great  principles  and  blessed 
experiences  of  Christianity  are  voluntarily 
and  intelligently  adopted  by  a  far  larger 
proportion  of  college  students  than  ever 
before." 

The  colleges  have  upheld  the  vital 
truths  of  the  gospel  by  expounding  the 
scriptures,  and  setting  forth  their  ethical 
and  religious  teaching.  They  recognize 
that  the  divine  order  in  saving  men  is 
through  the  inward  working  of  the  tnith 
and  spirit  of  God  in  their  souls.  Since 
knowledge  is  essential  to  salvation,  it  is  a 
duty  to  enlighten  men  and  bring  them  to 
understand  the  divine  plan  of  salvation. 
The  Bible  has  been  communicated  to  us 
in   foreign  languages,  and    requires  pro- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  253 

longed  study  and  extensive  knowledge  in 
order  that  these  oracles  of  God  may  be 
known  and  accepted  among  men. 

The  colleges  have  given  a  higher  ef- 
ficiency to  the  Christian  ministry.  There 
are  those  who  have  obtained  their  training 
and  knowledge  outside  of  the  college  who 
have  accomplished  great  good.  There  are 
pious  and  devoted  men  who  are  illiterate, 
but  whose  Christian  work  has  been  attended 
with  more  apparent  results  than  some 
college-trained  ministers.  These,  however, 
are  the  exception.  The  rule  is  that  those 
who  combine  with  their  piety  scholarly  ac- 
qiiisitions  exert  by  far  the  greatest  influ- 
ence for  good.  The  history  of  Christianity 
shows  how  God  has  raised  up  a  multitude 
of  scholarly  men  to  uphold  the  supremacy 
of  the  gospel  over  all  its  foes.  Paul, 
Luther,  Melancthon,  Calvin,  Knox,  Cran- 
mer,  Wesley  and  Fletcher  were  all  college- 
trained  men.  These  men,  with  others, 
endowed  with  mental  vigor,  great  learning 
and    executive    force,  have   been    used  by 


254  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

God  to  accomplish  His  great  task  of  build- 
ing up  His  kingdom  on  earth. 

The  church  has  learned  that  there  is  no 
need  of  antagonism  between  knowledge 
and  spirituality.  Knowledge  and  intel- 
lectual training  may  work  evil  in  an 
undevout  mind,  but  when  consecrated 
to  the  service  of  Christ,  learning  becomes 
the  handmaid  of  piety.  The  strength  and 
power  of  the  Christian  Church  of  to-day 
are  attributable  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
Christian  colleges,  that  have  not  only  en- 
couraged mental  training,  but  have  fostered 
refinement  and  humble  evangelical  piety. 
The  union  of  scholarly  training  and  a  holy 
life  has  raised  the  ministry  in  the  public 
estimation  so  that  it  commands  more 
respect  and  influence  for  good  than  ever 
before.  The  cause  of  Christ  never  took 
such  hold  on  the  popular  mind,  and  its 
influence  never  penetrated  so  deeply  the 
foundations  of  our  social  organism  as  it 
does  in  our  day. 

It  is  farthest  from  our  aim  to  exalt  and 


COLLEGES  LN  AMERICA.  255 

magnify  the  knowledge  that  "puffeth  up," 
or  unduly  to  glorify  the  human  faculties,  but 
we  do  plead  that  the  widest  opportunity  be 
offered  our  youth  to  enlarge  their  knowl- 
edge, and  strengthen  and  train  their 
mental  powers,  and  make  the  most  of 
themselves,  and  that  they  may  be  conse- 
crated to  the  Master's  service.  Men  and 
women  thus  trained  in  our  Christian  col- 
leges, and  eminent  alike  for  learning  and 
piety,  will  more  and  more  esteem  the 
divine  revelations,  and  through  them  help 
to  hasten  the  establishment  of  the  King- 
dom of  righteousness  on  the  earth. 

The  Students'  Volunteer  Movement  be- 
gan in  1876.  It  aims  to  awaken  a  deeper 
interest  in  foreign  missions  among  college 
students,  and  to  enlist  their  services. 
Within  a  brief  period,  more  than  4,000 
students  consecrated  their  lives  to  this 
heroic  Christian  work.  Already,  since  the 
movement  began,  600  young  men  and 
women  have  entered  the  mission  field,  and 
thousands  of  others  are  waitinq;  on  a  hesi- 


256  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

tating  church  to  furnish  the  means  to 
send  them  to  work  in  foreign  lands.  Well 
did  Ex-President  McCosh  say  that  the 
Christian  Church  had  not  witnessed  such 
a  spirit  of  consecration  since  the  day  of 
Pentecost. 

The  colleges  have  done  another  valuable 
service  in  awakening  and  strengthening  in 
the  national  life  a  deeper  sense  of  the  value 
and  importance  of  human  knowledge. 
They  are  monuments  of  the  dignity  and 
worth  of  ideas,  and  the  aspirations  of  the 
human  soul. 

In  a  new  country,  with  its  marvelous 
possibilities,  the  danger  has  been  in  having 
an  excessive  and  exaggerated  estimate  of 
our  national  advantages,  and  our  civiliza- 
tion has  tended  to  take  on  a  too  mechanical 
and  material  character.  We  need  to  have 
more  time  to  cultivate  the  nobler  nature, 
and,  by  Christian  and  scholarly  associa- 
tions and  more  intimate  friendships,  dis- 
cover and  prize  the  fineness  and  sweetness 
of  character  in  others,  which  may  enrich 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  257 

our  own  life  and  incite  us  to  worthy  action. 
It  is  the  province  of  higher  education  to 
help  foster  thos^  conditions  of  mind  and 
heart  whose  flexibility  and  natural  apti- 
tudes lead  the  individual  "to  draw  ever 
nearer  to  a  sense  of  what  is  indeed  beauti- 
ful, graceful,  and  becoming."  Such  wisdom 
and  goodness  are  of  the  highest  practical 
utility  in  the  life  of  a  nation.  The  colleges 
have  helped  to  offset  the  material  tendency 
of  our  civilization  by  holding  up  high 
ideals  and  emphasizing  the  supremacy  of 
the  unseen  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual 
forces  in  our  life.  Through  their  leader- 
ship in  the  schools,  and  through  the  press, 
platform  and  pulpit,  they  have  introduced 
into  the  fomenting  mind  of  the  republic 
the  noblest  ideals  and  the  most  generous 
incentives,  which  have,  in  a  large  measure, 
transformed  public  sentiment  for  the 
better.  We  have,  at  least,  learned  one 
great  lesson  in  our  histor}^:  that  if  we 
would  have  peace,  contentment,  happiness 
and  prosperity,  we  must  give  the  people  a 


258  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

Christian  education,  and  put  all  we  can 
into  character. 

The  college  receives  students  from  all 
ranks  and  conditions  of  society,  and  holds 
open  to  them  its  great  opportunities,  and 
worthily  trains  them  to  go  forth  into  those 
professions  and  higher  walks  of  life  where 
their  generous  character  and  refreshing 
influences  may  be  of  larger  service  to  the 
whole  community.  In  the  language  of 
President  Thwing,  it  may  be  said  that  "  it 
is  to  the  people  that  the  college  and 
university  desire  to  g^ve  more  than  they 
receive  from  the  people.  It  is  not  unjust 
to  say  that  the  people  are  debtors.  The 
community  has  given  to  Yale,  and  to 
Princeton,  and  to  Harvard,  much,  but 
Yale,  and  Princeton,  and  Harvard  have 
given  to  the  community  more.  For  the 
college  and  the  university  are  set  to  hold 
up  the  worth  of  things  to  the  mind,  and 
these  things  are  the  worthiest.  In  an  age 
democratic  and  material,  they  are  to  repre- 
sent the  monarchy  of  the  immaterial.     In 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  259 

an  age  of  luxuriousness,  they  are  to  declare 
the  words  of  Him,  homeless  and  pillowless, 
who  said :  *A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in 
the  abundance  of  things  which  he  hath.' 
They  stand  for  the  continuity  of  the  best 
life,  intellectual,  ethical,  religious.  Christian. 
In  the  realm  of  thought,  they  stand  for  the 
value  of  ideas ;  in  the  realm  of  morals,  for 
the  value  of  ideals;  in  the  realm  of  being, 
like  the  church,  for  the  value  of  char- 
acter." 

Next  to  the  home,  the  college  has  been 
the  ruling  spirit  in  private  and  public  life. 
The  colleges  have  rigorously  upheld  the 
principles  of  piety,  justice  and  sacred 
regard  for  truth  as  the  best  foundation  of 
social  order.  The  true  wealth  and  power 
of  the  nation  are  the  great  and  good  men 
produced  by  the  colleges  whose  example 
and  influence  have  been  to  promote  in- 
telligence and  good  order  in  society. 

We  look  over  our  vast  territory,  with  its 
multiplied  resources  and  growing  popula- 
tion, and  rejoice  in  our  material  possibili- 


260  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

ties  and  social  privileges.  But  what  is 
better  and  grander  than  all  these,  is  the 
fact  that  more  than  300  Christian  colleges 
are  scattered  over  our  land  as  beacon  lights 
in  our  national  life,  building  up  Christian 
character  as  the  best  legacy  for  present  and 
future  generations.  Some  of  the  colleges 
are  yet  weak  and  struggling,  but  they 
glory  in  their  aspirations  and  prospects  of 
future  grandeur.  The  g^eat  fabric  of  our 
national  life  is  radiant  with  the  golden 
threads  of  good  influences  emanating  from 
these  centers  of  superior  intelligence  and 
instruction,  where  time  is  given  for  care- 
ful thought  and  reflection  on  the  great 
problems  of  life. 

Education  by  the  Christian  college  is 
essential  to  the  largest  growth  and  progress 
of  the  state,  the  church,  and  all  humani- 
tarian movements.  "The  progress  grows 
more  rapid,"  says  William  T.  Harris,  "as 
the  Christian  spirit  which  leavens  our  civil- 
izations sends  forward,  one  after  another, 
its  legions  into  the  field ;  for  great  inven- 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  261 

tions,  as  well  as  great  moral  reforms,  pro- 
ceed frorti  Christianity." 

No  one  can  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  the 
power  and  influence  for  good  of  the 
Christian  college.  These  are  immeasur- 
able. The  Christian  Church  and  all  the 
friends  of  human  progress  and  welfare 
must,  more  and  more,  emphasize  the 
lesson  that,  if  we  educate  in  our  colleges 
the  leading  minds  of  the  nation,  we  will 
be  able  so  to  control  the  prevailing  habits 
and  modes  of  thought  throughout  the 
country  as  to  secure  the  permanency  and 
glory  of  Christian  liberty  and  religious 
institutions. 

These  truths  may  be  enforced  by  many 
historic  examples.  The  Jesuits  have  al- 
ways been  eminent  for  their  adroit  man- 
agement of  men.  They  recovered  a  large 
part  of  Europe  to  the  papacy  by  seizing 
and  controlling  the  colleges  and  universi- 
ties as  fountains  of  power.  They  had  at 
one  time  under  their  control  600  colleges. 
They  made  it  their  business  to  educate  the 


ate  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

leading  minds,  and  through  them  to  guide 
and  govern  communities  and  nations. 
When  only  one  in  thirty  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Austria  adhered  to  the  papacy,  Pro- 
fessor Ranke  says  that  "the  Jesuits  ob- 
tained a  controlling  influence  in  the 
universities,  and  in  a  single  generation 
Austria  was  lost  to  the  Reformation  and 
regained  to  the  papal  hierarchy." 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Protestant 
King  of  Poland  appointed  a  Jesuit  minister 
of  public  instruction,  who  soon  filled  the 
professors'  chairs  with  members  of  his  own 
order.  The  "scale  was  soon  turned,  and 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  never 
again  recovered  the  ascendency." 

In  our  own  day,  the  influence  of  a  college 
education  is  seen  in  the  case  of  a  number 
of  young  Bulgarians  at  Roberts  College,  in 
Constantinople.  These  students  rekindled 
hope  and  courage  in  the  people  and 
revived  the  feeling  of  nationality  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Bulgarians.  This  prepared 
the  way  for  a   general   uprising   in    1876, 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  263 

the  bloody  repression  of  which  brought  on 
the  war  with  Russia,  which  led  to  the 
liberation  of  the  province.  Thus,  influ- 
ences descend  with  power  from  above  into 
society.  The  colleges  are  the  right  arm  of 
strength  for  all  noble  efforts  for  human 
welfare.  Professor  Van  Hoist,  in  his  recent 
address,  delivered  at  Chicago,  said  :  "The 
most  effectual  way  to  lift  the  masses  to 
a  higher  plane — materially,  intellectually 
and  morally — is  to  do  everything  favoring 
the  climbing  up  of  an  ever-increasing 
minority  to  higher  and  higher  intellectual 
and  moral  altitudes.  Therefore,  universi- 
ties of  the  very  highest  order  become  every 
year  more  desirable — nay,  necessary — for 
the  preservation  and  the  development  of 
the  vital  forces  of  American  democracy. 
Undoubtedly,  to  have  them  established  is 
the  interest  of  those  who  would  frequent 
them,  but  it  is  still  infinitely  more  in  the 
interests  of  the  American  people  in  its 
entirety," 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  all  the  good 


264  COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA. 

that  comes  to  society  through  the  influence 
of  the  college.  It  is  quite  evident  that  our 
colleges  stand  for  the  production  of  the 
highest  manhood  and  womanhood,  and 
their  friends  should  marshal  their  forces 
to  enhance  their  growth  and  usefulness. 
It  is  the  underlying  forces  at  work  for 
good  in  our  colleges  that  insure  the  integ- 
rity and  safety  of  our  social  and  religious 
organizations.  Men  and  women  who  have 
means  should  regard  it  a  privilege  to 
lavish  their  gifts  upon  the  colleges  that 
labor  for  the  imperishable  things  of  life, 
and  provide  incentives  for  the  highest 
Christian  character  and  activity.  He  who 
consecrates  his  money  to  found  a  pro- 
fessorship in  a  Christian  college  erects  a 
monument  to  the  worth  of  the  human  soul, 
and  perpetuates  his  own  fame.  He  helps 
the  colleges  to  determine,  in  a  large 
measure,  the  character  of  the  persons  who 
shall  fill  our  pulpits,  teach  our  schools, 
edit  our  papers,  write  our  books,  and  give 
direction  to  all  the  political  and    social 


COLLEGES  IN  AMERICA.  265 

movements.  The  dangers  that  menace 
onr  nation  lie  in  the  lack  of  intelligent 
Christian  leadership.  It  is  within  the 
power  of  friends  of  the  colleges  to  enroll 
among  the  college  graduates  a  vast  army 
of  the  youth  of  our  land,  whose  largeness 
of  manhood  and  womanhood  and  magnifi- 
cence of  character  will  commend  them- 
selves to  the  love  and  esteem  of  the  lowly 
and  suffering  in  every  land. 

Lord  Macaulay  once  said  that  "the 
destiny  of  England  is  in  the  great  heart 
of  England,"  and  we  may  safely  say  that 
the  power  for  usefulness  of  the  colleges 
is  in  the  great  heart  of  the  Christian 
people  of  America,  who  will  be  more  and 
more  loyal  to  the  sacred  trust. 


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